380 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



in such a large holding, and described the nature of the 

 soil and what crops it was likely to produce. He then 

 walked some distance to the shore alone, and returned 

 with a bunch of flowers he had picked up, saying he was 

 " clean deen." Mrs. Taylor induced him to retire to rest 

 for two hours, after which he rose much refreshed. 



During his visit, he accompanied Mr. Taylor along the 

 bold rocky coast, which here rises above the boiling surf far 

 below in splendid cliffs and caves, jutting capes and isolated 

 stacks, that exhibit the grandest scenery. It recalled to 

 John his own boyhood, and similar scenes round dear, un- 

 forgotten Dunnottar. Old as he was, he could still stand 

 above the beetling precipices without fear, and walk along 

 the narrow footpaths that skirted their crests which, to unac- 

 customed eyes, it requires a steady nerve to do ; though he 

 could not now venture down to their base, as he would once 

 have done. Mr. Taylor took him to the Burn of Daff, to see 

 a rare Scottish species new to John, the Sea Wormwood 

 (Artemisia maritima), which he had discovered in 1875.* 

 He also showed him, amongst others, the Frog Orchis 

 (Habenaria viridis), along the shore near Downies. This 

 is a picturesque fishing village lying between Clashfarquhar 

 and the sea, which also recalled John's early memories of 

 Stonehaven and Cowie and their interesting people. 



For the aged traveller, who however walked astonish- 

 ingly well for his years, the distance was too far to go north 

 to the other fishing villages of Portlethen, and Findon 

 locally called " Finnan," whose name is known, all the 



* He had previously found it, in 1862, at the only other spot where 

 it grows in that neighbourhood on the burn sides near the village of 

 Cove to the north. 



