378 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



Mr. Taylor in 1855 still exists, preserved by John, giving 

 a long list of plants he wished John to bring him, in- 

 cluding grasses and ferns, and telling him, to cheer the 

 enthusiast, that Botany was thriving at that time among 

 young men. Mr. Taylor has many reminiscences of the 

 old man and his studies and difficulties, which have been 

 utilised in the present history. 



One day he gave John specimens of a species since 

 famous for investigations into their carnivorous powers, the 

 rarer Spathulate and Great English Sundew (Drosera inter- 

 media and Anglica), which he did not then possess. When 

 he did so, he told him of a still rarer find then recently 

 made by Mr. John Sim (a capital general and cryptogamic 

 botanist, now of Gateside, in Strachan), the Limestone 

 Polypody (Polypodium calcareum}, or Rigid three-branched 

 Polypody, a rare fern almost confined to limestone regions, 

 and requiring a calcareous soil, as its name shows. Mr. 

 Sim had discovered it in an old limestone quarry 

 opposite the gate of Scotston, in Aberdeenshire, where he 

 was then farmer and gardener. As Mr. Taylor had but 

 a single specimen, he could not give one to John, but he 

 described its locality. John left the house, and returned 

 the same evening with the plant in his possession, having- 

 at once set out for the spot, some ten miles off. He had 

 found the quarry and its rare inhabitant, and returned with 

 it in joyous triumph, as he had often done before. John 

 had a remarkable facility, his friend observes, even in his. 

 advanced years, of discovering plants under unlikely cir- 

 cumstances, when he once went in search of them. 



After Mr. Taylor's removal to Clashfarquhar, in 1874, 

 John visited him twice, old as he was. As letter- writing 



