DISCIPLES AND SYMPATHISERS AT DROUGHSBURN. 351 



whose reminiscences of the botanist we have already 

 gleaned, also recalls him from childhood, when he came to 

 church and used to speak to the children and to his father 

 about " the lilies of the field how they grow." Afterwards, 

 while he was attending college, John tried to induce him 

 to begin the serious study of plants. " He brought me," 

 Williams says, "a book to help me in the subject. He pulled 

 a buttercup to pieces, and explained its parts very carefully 

 and minutely. I resolved to begin discovering for myself 

 the names of the commonest wild plants. I began with 

 Ragweed ; but, alas ! the florets of the disc, which I mis- 

 took for the petals, and the florets of the ray for the stamens, 

 would not correspond with the book. I tried another of 

 the Composite?, with like results. I got disheartened, and 

 returned the book to John, at the same time telling him 

 that I had no time for Botany. I think he was vexed. If 

 I had told him my difficulty, he would have been so glad 

 to remove it and to instruct me further ; but I did not, and 

 so my technical botanical studies ended. 



" I called one day on John at Droughsburn," he 

 continues. " We discussed the weather, crops, and church 

 news. In a few minutes, John had dragged me to his 

 wonderful patch of cultivation his garden. He told me a 

 great deal about the plainest-looking weeds. Amongst 

 other things, he plucked a bit of common Yarrow (Achillea 

 millefolium], and told me that the plant was once called 

 ' Eerie,' as lasses used to take it and put it in their 

 breasts as a charm, repeating this rhyme- 



' Eerie, eerie, I do pluck 

 And in my bosom I do put ; 

 The first young lad that speaks to me, 

 The same shall my true lover be.' 



