266 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



employment." " There is hardly a spot of earth so rugged 

 in which the art of the gardener will not be found to 

 produce something like loveliness in the scene ; scarcely a 

 tribe of man so rude among whom it will not create some 

 idea of beauty, to lift up his mind to the Supreme Fountain 

 of light and beauty and the Giver of all goodness ; and 

 there is scarcely a cottage so small that may not have the 

 rose and the woodbine winding round its porch, and Clematis 

 or virgin bower. I have heard that even the poorest of the 

 weavers of Paisley and elsewhere, much to their credit, take 

 especial pride in rearing their geraniums, hyacinths and 

 tulips. It would thus appear that there is a sort of spell 

 or charm about flowers, independent of fashion or the 

 pleasures of sight and smell, which tends to soothe the 

 spirits and compose the mind." 



In practising gardening, he rightly pleads, like the 

 scientific student he was, that, to do it properly, " the first 

 and great object to be attained is a thorough knowledge of 

 the constitution of plants, without which no correct idea 

 can be formed of their proper treatment." He then gives a 

 series of advices about gardens and gardening, showing good 

 knowledge of the subject and practical acquaintance with 

 its details, with which we need not trouble even the most 

 patient reader. He mentions that Pliny describes about 

 a thousand plants of all kinds, and asks us to compare 

 this with Loudon's estimate of our floral wealth in the 

 present century, which amounts to above 25,000 species. 

 He attributes the cankering, or " clubbing," that attacks 

 cabbages and carrots to dry ground and to drought, " which 

 is the nursing mother of insects of every description." 



" I asked," he continues, " some country people what 



