3lS JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



end, being truly a ruling passion, strong even to death. 

 Many proofs of this could be given, but one will suffice. 



In July, 1878, shortly after my account of him appeared 

 in " Good Words " of that year, a lady from England drove 

 to Droughsbridge at the foot of the burn, and walked up to 

 the cottage to see the old man, whom she found at home. 

 He gladly showed her all she wished, his books and plants, 

 and the garden, and was unusually bright and cheerful. The 

 lady was much charmed with her visit, and expressed a 

 desire to possess a specimen of the Linncea Borealis, or the 

 Two-flowered Linnsea. This is a pretty, little, perennial 

 plant, with long, branched, thready steins and sweet pink 

 twin bells, creeping in the northern woods. It was selected 

 by the great Swedish botanist as an emblem of his own 

 once lowly life, and was named after him, and used by him 

 as his crest. It is rare in England, being found, it is said, 

 only in one spot there ; but it occurs in several places in the 

 north of Scotland. It is much sought after for its rarity 

 and beauty, and on account of its poetical and scientific 

 association with Linnaeus. It was a special favourite with 

 John for these reasons, especially the last. 



Charles Black first discovered it, identifying it from 

 description, one day when casually passing through a fir 

 wood between the Manse and Bridge of Alford, and he 

 announced the discovery to John with great exultation. 

 John afterwards found it at other spots in the Vale. The 

 nearest station to Droughsburn was on Manabattock Hill 

 in Tullynessle, north-west of the Bridge of Alford ; * and 

 that being the very time of its flowering, which occurs in 



* He first found it there in 1842, "to the west of Tullynessle, on the 

 hills above Dalpersie Castle," as already mentioned, p. 206. 



