226 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



seen again, had he no borne a hand wi' the ferry boat." 

 At Arbroath, " a gae close toon," as it certainly was then 

 and still is, he " saw a heap o' plants on the sands." In 

 Montrose, " a bonnie clean toonie," which it is, though too 

 " close," like its neighbours, he got a month's work at the 

 loom, living there when a woman was "hangit for killin' 

 her man." " The nicht she and her mither broke his head, 

 the toon was in an awfu' state. The mither got- aff, as 

 it wasna proved on her, but the dochter was hangit," 

 the hangman saying " he wu'd be as canny wi' her as he 

 cu'd ! " John could not bear to witness the execution, and 

 did not go to see it. 



At St. Andrews, he was down in Wishart's dungeon, 

 and saw the place where he was burned, with ever-living 

 Covenanting enthusiasm. On the Links, he found the 

 viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare), with its "very bonnie 

 blue floor," " most stately, most brilliant of wild flowers," 

 as it has been characterized, and with " sick a droll name." 

 This John "rehearsed once or twice when he first heard 

 it." * The plant, he said, " is countit a winder north here 

 awa, but it is thocht naething o' doon yonder, whar there 

 is plenty o't ; " but he got it also in Tough. He went 

 round by the "East Neuk o' Fife," where he saw the 

 collieries, and where beans and peas were very cheap and 

 were used by him as a change from the everlasting porridge. 

 He wandered as far south as Kelso, " a sma' boro' toonie ; " 



* It is called Echium from the Greek ecfus, a viper ; and bugloss, 

 or ox tongue, from its bristly leaves, from bous, an ox, and glossa, a 

 tongue. Another of the same class is called the Cynoglossum or 

 hound's tongue, from the Greek cyon^ a dog. The Echium was 

 supposed to cure the bite of the viper. 



