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DUNCAN'S extensive collection
of plants still lay decaying and useless in the old weaving shop at
Droughsburn. The most of his specimens he had already named; but the
localities, widely scattered, had never been affixed. These he knew himself
with his remarkable memory, and many of them had been taken note of by John
Taylor during his, frequent visits. It had often occurred to his botanical
friends to have the now rapidly deteriorating gatherings carefully examined,
and fully named and localised, while his now failing memory could be relied
on. It was a great and difficult task, involving much time, patience, and
care, as well as technical knowledge. It could not be successfully carried
out by any outsider, however capable and willing: for the silent man would
reveal nothing except to one in close and sympathetic intimacy; much less
would he allow any but such a friend to touch them. Always jealous of the
least interference with them by any hands, however tender and knowing,
except his own, he was now more careful than ever that they should be
violated by no one, unless under his own eye and direction. They were truly
dearer to the fading botanist than the prized hoard of the veriest miser.
Happily, however, amongst his
friends there were more than one that possessed the requisite intimacy, and
knowledge as well as will, for the delicate, difficult and long-continued
work. His friend James Taylor, of Clashfarquhar, at last determined that it
should be done, having already gradually approached the shy old student on
the subject. It was not an easy thing to manage, for the proposal was
associated, not only with an upturning of all his receptacles, but with a
confession of decay and near decease which his unusual vitality and keenness
made painful, even when he was far above fourscore. In 1880, Mr. Taylor
determined to act before it should be too late, and wrote to John to that
effect. He had also sounded him on the wisdom of presenting them to the
Aberdeen University, as both a fitting and honourable memento of his own
long devotion to science and an incentive to others to taste its undying
joys. This idea pleased the old man vastly. As he had abundantly shown,
nothing gave him more pleasure all through life than to extend the number of
the lovers and students of science ; and this would be a very good means of
doing so, which he hoped would be more fruitful of good result than had been
his own endeavours. James Taylor communicated his ideas to John M. B.
Taylor; and among all John Duncan's friends and disciples there was none
with the necessary knowledge who would be more willing to give the time and
trouble required for the work. To John Taylor, it would truly be a labour of
love, for the sake of the man, the plants and the science.
On the 17th of April of that
year, the two friends paid a visit to Droughsburn, where they found the old
man pretty vigorous in mind and body, and happy at seeing them. During that
and the following days, the whole of the gatherings of nigh fifty years were
brought to light from all the recesses and chests in the old shop, and not a
few of them for the first time for many years. These researches showed an
immense accumulation of botanical materials, but also sad inroads, by moth
and decay, on even the finest and rarest specimens. It was, however, truly
surprising how well preserved they had remained as a whole, considering
their age and the confined and unpromising circumstances under which they
had been kept so long. It was found that, when properly selected and
arranged, they would form a collection not unworthy of the knowledge and
enthusiasm that had gathered them, and the University to which they would be
presented. His friends expressed their gratification to the old botanist,
and thus increased his joy, which he expressed in a way childlike in its
reality and beautiful to see.
James Taylor returned home
that evening, after seeing all things put in order for their transfer. John
was too exhausted with the labours and excitements of the day to accompany
his friend along the burn side, but deputed that office to the younger man.
John shook hands warmly with his guest in the doorway, being evidently much
affected; and they parted for what proved to be the last time. John then lay
down to rest, and rose refreshed when John Taylor returned from seeing his
friend off to Aberdeen. After entering the shop, where John received him, he
was surprised and touched when the old man went to one of his chests, and
taking his copy of Dickic's "Flora," impressively handed it to him, in a way
that conveyed more than his words, saying: "There, Johnnie, I'm to gee ye
that. See that ye'll get on noo. Ye ken Botany, and ye're noo to tak' my
place." His young friend was much moved. He received the volume as a proof
of a friendship he prized and the highest incitement to further study, and
gave his aged tutor the desired pledge. It was one of those moments in a
man's history that live for ever in the memory and heart, and deeply sway
the after life, as the young man strongly felt.
John Taylor remained at
Droughsburn for three days more, gathering together the whole collection and
adding to the names and localities, which his use of short-hand enabled him
to do with rapidity. Old John felt the greatest pleasure in getting the
herbarium gathered and packed up for transport, and in thinking of its
destination and future influence, even although it involved parting with the
treasured possessions of half a century.
His gift of the plants to the
University, though tinged with the sadness of parting and the decay and
death it signified, was a spontaneous, free-will offering for the sake of
his beloved study, made without one thought of reward or even desire of
praise. He frequently spoke of the gratification it gave him to think of the
use they would be to the students; that "they micht see them and ken them,"
and thus be induced, more of them, to love the wild flowers and study the
science that described them. During their examination, the sight of many of
them recalled dear memories, which roused latent humour, stirred old
merriment, and also struck long-silent chords of sorrow. Amongst others,
when the leaf of the water-lily was turned up, he again referred to the day
of danger in the Loch of Drum, where he nearly lost his life—an incident
which seems to have made a lasting impression on the man, as it was
calculated to do, and which he mentioned to me again some time before his
death.
When they were all finally
bound up and packed carefully in a great corn-sack, which they filled, he
looked proud of their bulk, and referred merrily to the burden they would be
to John Taylor to get them to Aberdeen. They recalled, he said, a similar
burden of plants which formed the herbarium of Dr. Murray, [Dr. Murray was
once a medical practitioner in Alford, near which he lived, at Smithyhill,
and seems to have been a man in many respects much before his time. He was
imbued with a pure love of science, especially Botany, and his "Northern
Flora" was a praiseworthy effort to catalogue the plants of the north of
Scotland at an early date. His memory is still warmly cherished in the Vale,
where stories are told of his scientific enthusiasm. His herbarium, which
was examined by Dr. Dickie, was bought at his death in 1837, by the Haddo
House gardener, who afterwards went to Australia, but it has since been lost
sight of. Can any one throw light on its history? A short account of Dr.
Murray in the Aberdeen Herald, from the pen of his friend, Dr. Templeton, of
Aberdeen, was all that appeared of this uncommon man and scientist.] author
of "Northern Flora;" when, after his death in 1837, they were borne by the
carrier to Haddo House, where the gardener then lived who had purchased
them.
During these days, he went
over his books with Mr. Taylor, and also his letters, pointing out where
they were, in view of his decease. Uncovering his grey hairs, he spoke
solemnly of his death and his desire to be buried in Alford with a decent
funeral. He made his friend promise, if possible, "to put some queer stane
on his head," to mark the spot where he should be laid; and he indicated one
of a species of volcanic boulders, widely scattered over the district,
locally known as "heathens." [These boulders are of a special kind of
diorite, containing, as Mr. J. S. G. Wilson, of the Geological Survey,
informs me, in addition to the usual constituents, another mineral not yet
determined. They form a remarkable stream in Aberdeenshire, stretching from
their parent source in the Highlands of Glen Bucket. Such stones are so
called because found on the wild heath. From the same word, we have heather,
the heath plant; and the heathen, as remaining pagan in the wilder country
after the towns were Christianised.] This was the only desire for fame,
posthumous though it would be, John had ever spontaneously expressed. The
wish thus uttered by him to have an honourable grave, even in his poverty,
was at once natural, simple and pardonable, and it is common amongst the
very poorest everywhere, and not least in Scotland; as in the case of Widow
Smith in "Jonas Fisher," ["Jonas Fisher: a Poem in Brown and White," by the
Earl of Southesk. A remarkable book, traversing a great part of the
religious and social problems of the day.] who would have died in perfect
peace but for one thought that vexed her mind—to have, if it were His will,
"a decent funeral." Like her, John Duncan
"Wanted neither help nor food,
But one thing his whole heart did crave:
That, saved from pauper's lot, his corpse
Might rest within a decent grave."
John also presented his
friend with some other volumes in memory of the giver, saying, "I hae had my
day o' them," and he accompanied the gift with his best counsels and dying
blessing as from a father to a son, which intellectually and morally he had
been. He advised him, with special emphasis, to continue and extend his
study of Nature, which had been fraught to himself with so much blessing;
for he had been able above many
"To recognize,
In Nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of our purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of our hearts, and soul
Of all our moral being."
He also sent two volumes as a
last gift to James Taylor.
When John Taylor left,
bearing the precious and heavy load of plants on his strong shoulders, John
brightly called it "a gcy bir'n," as he viewed it with sparkling pleasure,
subdued by sadness. The old man accompanied him to the stile, staff in hand,
as in the old days, though without the old vitality. He then shook hands
with him three times in succession, with a look and pressure of deep
emotion, and then turned away in silence and with a full heart.
It took John Taylor all his
leisure till December to complete the selecting, arranging, localising,
cleaning, and cataloguing of the immense collection. The specimens had been
classed and named by John according to the Linnĉan system, to which he
adhered throughout. Mr. Taylor re-arranged them and made a list of the whole
according to the Natural System also. It was a very laborious piece of work,
which could only have been done by one who viewed it really as a loving
labour.
John Taylor reports that of
the 1428 species that form the flora of Scotland and England, John's
collection, dilapidated though it was, contained, when it came into his
hands, 1131 specimens, and, of course, had once included many more, if not
most; that John was familiar with most or all of the others; and that of the
65o species mentioned in Dickie's "Flora" as belonging to Aberdeen, Banff,
and Kincardine, he wanted only a few specimens. A large number in his
herbarium were utterly destroyed by moths and other agents, and others were
so deteriorated that they were useless for preservation. After careful
selection, as presented to the University, the collection contains some 750
species, divided as follows:-
1. A general collection of
about 500 species, arranged according to the twenty-four classes of
Linn2eus, including ferns, in various books.
2. A book containing an
almost complete collection of species, about i 50, representing the flora of
the Vale of Alford, many being rare.
3. A book of about 50
specimens of the grasses of the Alford district.
4. A book of about 5o
specimens of the cryptogamic plants of the same district, chiefly mosses and
lichens.
The first (1) was from his
general collection, gradually decimated, by more than forty years' keeping
in many cases, though added to as years rolled on. The two next were those
shown at the Alford Horticultural Show in 1871. The fourth (4) was the
collection he made the following year, which was then all named, but which
he did not present for competition.
The dates of the specimens
range from about 1836 or 1837, when he began Systematic Botany, till 1871.
The books containing the general collection are formed chiefly of coarse
grey or brown paper, parts of newspapers and blotting paper, all stitched in
home-made covers, which are formed generally of sheets of paper pasted
together. In examining them, it was found that the moths had done least
damage to the plants kept in blotting paper, and slightly more to those in
newspapers, but that the destruction was almost total in those preserved in
thick grey paper. Tea paper, as used by grocers, John found a very good
preservative, and be utilised it in his later collections, which are well
laid down.
The old newspapers that
enclosed his early gatherings are interesting memorials of the times in
which he began botanising. The Aberdeen 7ouurnal frequently appears, from
1839 onwards. Here are some numbers of the llberdeen constitutional obtained
from Charles Black, who took it out at Whitehouse, as a Conservative. -
There is a copy of the Scotsman of 1840, price 4½d. This is a leaf of the
Scottish wrist. That is a fragment of the memorable but fleeting notices of
the day, containing a list of the opposers of intrusion in the Formartin
district of Aberdeenshire, who pledged themselves to leave the Erastian
church. And so on; each new page revealing glimpses of the past, civil and
sacred, religious and social, and of the numerous movements, now matters of
history, that characterised the middle of this century.
By the end of December, John
Taylor had completed his labours on the herbarium, and steps were then taken
for its presentation to the University of Aberdeen. This took place on the
last day of 188o, Mr. James and Mr. John Taylor representing John Duncan;
and Dr. James Trail Professor of Botany, the University. The herbarium was
accepted by the professor, who, after examination, expressed a high opinion
of its value, and deposited it for safe keeping and exhibition in the
Natural History Museum of Marischal College. There it now lies, and there it
is to be hoped it will long be preserved, as a very imperfect but not
unworthy monument of botanical study and rare scientific enthusiasm in
humble life; not only a means of practical instruction, but, from its unique
history, a strong impulse for good, both scientific and moral, to every
student that may have, the privilege of examining its widely-gathered
contents.
Accounts of the presentation
appeared in all the local and in some of the metropolitan papers, with a
sketch of the botanist's life, written chiefly by John Taylor. Some of the
local journals included a detailed list of the rarer species, drawn up by
the same hand. The ceremony was certainly as unostentatious and simple as it
well could have been. It was, nevertheless, quite in keeping with the
character and studies of the man that had presented the collection. Surely
it was one that meant more than met the eye. |
