94 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



he said, " This is a cure for toothache ; yet fowk'll be 

 real ill wi' their teeth, afore they'll believe you or me, and 

 they'll gang awa doon to Mr. Hay's " (the druggist's in 

 Alford) "and pay threepence or fourpence for fat they 

 micht get for naething but foul fingers ! " that is, for 

 the trouble of digging for the roots. In garlic, he had 

 great faith, and he kept it in his garden, using it to destroy 

 the disagreeable eructation arising from castor oil, which 

 it at once cured or prevented. Elecampane, or aligopane 

 as he called it (Inula helenium), a rare British plant, he 

 kept in his garden, as a potent cure for a cough, by means 

 of a decoction from its roots. The leaf of the greater 

 plantain (Plantago major] he used to stop bleeding with; 

 and it has a remarkable power in this way, having been 

 long known in Scotland, on account of this property, as 

 " the healing leaf." It should be pulled slowly, so that the 

 strong fibres in the broad ribbed leaf may be drawn out. 



Of knotted figwort (Scrophularia nodosa), he made an 

 ointment for the throat, whence the plant has also the name 

 thread-wort or throat-wort, and with it he once treated 

 Charles Black. Tansy he used as a cure for gout and 

 for various women's diseases. Spurge he cured warts with, 

 by means of its milky juice. The common bluebell he 

 made a preparation of, to increase women's milk. Pepper- 

 mint and spearmint he used to grow in large quantities, 

 and sell dried in bundles, for various purposes. From one 

 of the Polypody ferns, he made an ointment or " saw " for 

 burns. Lichens, "the scabs o' stanes," he used to make 

 a liniment of, for chapped lips. For consumption, he 

 employed, (i) the root of parsley, boiled first alone and 

 then with candy sugar ; (2) a decoction of horehound, 



