404 SERENO WATSON. 



speak in his memory, think first of the reserve and silence in which he 

 walked. The question arises in their minds at the outset, how far is 

 one justified in breaking through a reserve which was unbroken by him, 

 and revealing to others the features of his blameless and useful life. 

 This question is answered in part by a few letters written by our 

 friend to relatives, who were sometimes naturally importunate for de- 

 tails of his movements ; some of these memoranda have been placed 

 at my disposal for the execution of the present task. Beyond the 

 limits of these letters, and of others sent me by his relatives and 

 nearest friends, the present sketch will not venture to pass, until it 

 reaches that period of his life which becomes a part of the history of 

 American Botany. 



Sereno Watson was born at East Windsor Hill, Connecticut, on 

 December 1, 1826. His father, who had been a merchant in New York 

 City, passed the last years of his life on a farm which he had inherited. 

 On this farm Sereno's boyhood was passed, and here he developed a 

 vigorous physique. Until his very last year, he was capable of sus- 

 tained effort with little fatigue, from which it came to pass that he 

 was wont to tax his strength to its utmost limit, often imprudently 

 or with only slight regard to consequences. 



The class in which he graduated at Yale, in 1847, was one of the 

 largest and strongest at that period. In the words of one of his class- 

 mates, he " was always highly spoken of by those who knew him, but, 

 as in later years, was so reticent as to his personal history that prob- 

 ably no one knew much about him." He was considered a good 

 scholar. He distinguished himself especially in classics, taking prizes 

 for Latin composition and translation. 



In 1851 Watson wrote thus to a relative : "Three years and a half 

 ago I graduated, and I doubt if there was ever a mortal cursed with 

 more diffidence, less energy, or a head fuller of strange notions, and 

 who, to make the matter worse, was so fully conscious of it all. The 

 most that 1 have done since then has been partially to overcome these 

 drawbacks to all success. On leaving college I knew not what to do. 

 I had no predilection for any of the professions. The only course left 

 open to me for getting a living was teaching school." To this work 

 he went at once, and entered on a very varied experience. He taught 

 common or district schools in Connecticut, Long Island, and Rhode 

 Island, and in the Academies at Allentown, Penn., and Tarrytown, 

 N. Y 



While teaching in Tarrytown, he wrote to a relative as follows : 

 " My experience has taught me many a lesson which I probably would 



