PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. CXV11 
Typha latifolia , L.—It is difficult to know in what light we should 
regard this plant. There is probably little doubt about its having 
been planted in some of the places where it grows, but in some others 
there is reason to think that it is not impossibly indigenous. While 
the plant forms big patches, it does not, so far as I have seen, appear 
to extend its area by seeding or otherwise; and in some of the places 
where it grows it seems unlikely to have been planted, as these are 
remote from gardens and pleasure grounds. On the other hand, it is 
in some of its presumably native habitats associated with other species 
which in Perthshire are local and rare. I am inclined, therefore, to 
think that in some of these places it is indigenous. 
Arum maculotum , L.— “PWild in Scotland” (Student’s Flora). 
In Perthshire it is certainly an alien. 
Lemna trisulca , L.—This duck-weed affords a probable example 
of how a plant may be carried by water fowl. It is, or was, abundant 
in Moncreiffe Pond, which was for a long time our only station for 
it. Into this artificial sheet of water it is not unlikely that it was 
accidentally introduced with water plants. More recently, it has 
appeared in the pond known as the Dead Waters of the Earn, two 
miles west of Moncreiffe Pond, from which it was probably brought 
by swans or other birds. 
Butomus umbellatus , L. — A great deal may be said for and against 
this being native in Perthshire. In England it occurs from Durham 
and Yorkshire southwards. In Scotland it is recorded as “naturalized” 
in a few places south of Perthshire. In Perthshire it has been found 
in various places in the marshes on both sides of the Tay below 
Perth, and in an old backwater of the Tay near Guay. It also 
occurs in a marsh beside Loch Cluny, where it is said to have 
been planted by the Rev. Mr. M‘Ritchie, who was minister of 
the parish at the end of last century. The question to be con¬ 
sidered is, how did it come to the marshes of the Tay and to Guay? 
Taking, in the first place, the Tay marshes. Is it possible that it 
has got to them from Loch Cluny, whose waters reach the Tay? 
At Loch Cluny, so far as I can ascertain, its existence has always 
been precarious, and the plant has never been abundant. To reach 
the Tay a long stretch of lakes and slow-running streams would have 
to be traversed, with many suitable places for the naturalization of 
the Buto?nus . In none of these, however, has it been detected, and, 
from the observations of my friend, Mr. A. Bennet, in Surrey, it 
seems to be a species which is very slow of spreading. I think that, 
therefore, the Tay marshes have not been colonised by water com¬ 
munication from Loch Cluny. Is it likely to have been planted in 
or near these marshes? The only thing in favour of this being the 
case is that the flowers are handsome. Against it is the extreme 
unlikelihood of any ornamental plant being purposely introduced 
into the Tay marshes, and the fact that it does not seem to have 
ever been cultivated in any ornamental waters, either near the Tay 
or elsewhere in Perthshire, except, of course, Loch Cluny. May it 
not therefore have been brought to the Tay by natural means ? The 
seeds are numerous and minute. The plant often grows in soft mud, 
