496 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



The disabilities which his early want of education 

 imposed upon him throughout life were keenly felt by the 

 man himself, though so bravely combated and so splendidly 

 overcome. At one of his later visits to James Taylor, 

 several botanical friends called while he was there for a 

 field day among the flowers, all well educated and most of 

 them college-bred. In speaking afterwards to James Black of 

 this meeting, John thus expressed himself, " Oh, had I only 

 had learnin' and youth, I cu'd hae followed the best o' them. 

 Even as it was, I saw and understood a hale field lyin' 

 afore me. Oh, what a loss is the \vant o' learnin', man ! 

 I only see its full scope beside men like thae. I'm like 

 like the single leaf o' the plantain, they like the thousand- 

 leaved yarrow ; I'm like the Hart's-tongue, they're like the 

 Maidenhair ; I'm like the ping-ping o' hailstanes, they're like 

 the searchin', penetratin', giddy whirl o' blue drift ! My 

 ilka effort has been slow an' laborious" and here he drew 

 his finger zigzag across the table at which he was seated, in 

 illustration of the process " unwieldly like the gambols o' 

 an elephant, as compared wi' the free and easy motions o' a 

 fine dancer ! " That put his pwn case at once justly, 

 forcibly and poetically. 



His love of knowledge was intense and insatiable, the 

 genuine appetite of the born scientist, and, as far as his 

 opportunities lay, omnivorous ; and his acquirements, in the 

 circumstances, were remarkable for amount and breadth. At 

 first, this desire to know was a strong, unregulated longing, 

 drinking up all that came in its way, and appropriating 

 even the doubtful quackery of Astrology. But it gradually 

 developed into a true philosophical thirst, especially after 

 entering on Systematic Botany with Charles Black, satisfied 



