176 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



in extremis, and he brought the plant, leaf and blossom, 

 home with him to Netherton ! 



The Loch of Drum, which still covers eighty-five acres, 

 is now little better than a morass, fringed with birch and 

 alder bushes, and is not more than four feet in depth at any 

 place. At John's visit, it formed a very different scene, 

 and was a deep lake surrounded by picturesque wood, now 

 cut down. 



The danger he had run made a strong and lasting 

 impression on Duncan, and he naturally and firmly resented 

 any flippant allusions to the subject, which some of his 

 acquaintances were mischievously inclined to make, for he 

 felt too serious for joking and too grateful for fun. 



When Mr. John Taylor was arranging his herbarium 

 for presentation to the Aberdeen University, some months 

 before John's death, he came on a broken leaf of the water- 

 lily, the rest of it and the whole of the flower having been 

 eaten by the moths, in spite of care and protective 

 camphor. That was all that remained of the memorable 

 plant, gathered forty years before, which the old man 

 spoke solemnly of, as a soldier would of a sword that 

 might have killed him had he not been rescued. The 

 leaf was too much destroyed to be sent to the university 

 with the rest. But it was a pity it was not sent, however 

 imperfect, if only as a proof and memento of pluck that 

 every student might be proud to emulate. 



During this same journey, John brought home a root 

 of the Royal fern (Osmunda regalis), which he obtained 

 from the banks of the stream that flowed from the Loch 

 of Park, a habitat from which it has since been rooted out.* 



* It is mentioned, along with the water-lily and other rare aquatic 



