INTRODUCTION clxxHi 



He is apparently the first who recorded Arabis hirsuia, Primus Cerasus 

 (he also mentions P. Avium\ and Orobanche {major) elatior. He also 

 recorded Hieracium murorum, which, however, was almost certainly 

 only H. sciaphilum, and Bubia jyeregrina, a most interesting discovei-y if 

 correct, but which is improbable, and must be queried till verified. 

 He was also a conjoint discoverer of Cuscuta Trifolii and Viola Reichen- 

 bachiana in Berkshire, and he contributed to the Journal of the Lmnean 

 Society for 1871 ip. 65) a pa"per on the forms of AspicUum {Polystichum) 

 ancjulare and A. aculeatimi observed at East Woodhay. 



Mr. Hewett Cottrell Watson, whose name has been already men- Watson, 

 tioned in our Botanologia, was born in 1804 at Firbeck in Yorkshire. H. C. 

 His taste for botany was encouraged, if not originally excited, by 

 Dr. Stanley, afterwards Bishop of Norwich ; the bishop's son, who was 

 a younger schoolfellow of Watson's and had benefited by his protection, 

 was Arthvir Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster. Watson was in- 

 tended for the army, but an accident at cricket caused a permanent 

 injury to his knee, and disqualified him for the profession of arms ; he 

 then studied medicine, but never qualified, as his health broke down on 

 the eve of his examination for his degree. He travelled for some time in 

 1835, and then purchased a house at Thames Ditton, where he spent 

 the remainder of his life, engaged in botanical work. All the chief 

 botanical publications bear traces of his industry. In 1835 he pub- 

 lished the first volume of his New Botanist's Guide, the second volume 

 appearing in 1837. The first volume of his magnum opus, the Cybele 

 Brifanmca, was published in 1847, tlie second in 1849, the third in 

 1852, and the fourth in 1859. Several references to the plants of 

 Berkshire, among them the first notice of Saponaria Vaccaria, may be 

 found in the pages of this classic work. A supplement to the Cybele 

 was issued in i860. The three volumes of the Compendium to the Ctjbele 

 Britatinica, published 1868-1870, contain a mass of additional in- 

 formation obtained after the publication of the Cybele. In the volume 

 of 1870 Enarthrocarpus lyratus, D.C., and Chenopodium Botnjs, L., two 

 casuals, are reported from Windsor and Bray respectively. The Topo- 

 grapJiical Botany, published in 1873-4, exhibits in tabular form the 

 distribution of plants through the 112 counties and vice-counties of 

 Britain, and to this work many references are made in this Flora, 

 the second edition (1883) being quoted under each indigenous 

 species. Mr. Watson also edited several of the re-issues of the London 

 Catalogue of British Plants. His various works show what an extensive 

 knowledge he possessed of British botany, and his remarks on some of 

 his contemporaries are somewhat incisive and unsparing ; he said in 

 after-life of some utterances of his : ' They read too hard ; it is a terrible 

 thing to have the bump of destructiveness highly developed.' But my 

 remembrances of him are of a most kindly character, and his letters 



