MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XV11 



He was the mainstay of the London Botanical Society, as 

 Dr. J. E. Gray and Mr. G. E. Dennes have borne testimony in 

 print. He did not join for some time after its commencement, 

 but for several years he was the only good critical botanist 

 amongst the resident London members, and all the parcels were 

 sent down to Thames Ditton for him to supervise. When 

 Dr. Boswell undertook the curatorship, this of course was no 

 longer necessary. The ' London Catalogue of British Plants ' is 

 now in its seventh edition. The earlier editions were, I believe, 

 almost entirely drawn up by Mr. Watson, whilst in the later 

 ones he had Dr. Boswell' s aid. The only excursion beyond the 

 bounds of Britain which he ever undertook was a trip to the 

 Azores in the summer of 1842. From their position far out in 

 the Atlantic, about midway between Europe and America, the 

 flora and fauna of these islands possess a peculiar interest. A 

 surveying expedition was planned by the English Government, 

 and the war steamer Styx detailed for the service, and notice 

 was given to Sir Wm. Hooker that a botanist would be allowed 

 a place on board if he would himself defray all the necessary 

 expenses incident on his explorations. Sir William communi- 

 cated with Mr. Watson, and he undertook the post on these 

 conditions. Though much hampered in carrying out his plans 

 by the martinet ways of the captain, and being able to visit only 

 four out of the nine larger islands, he made a collection of 338 

 out of a total flora of under 500 species, about one hundred 

 of which were not known in the group before, several of them 

 being new to science. Through this visit he introduced into 

 cultivation several of the more interesting endemic Azoric 

 plants, such as Campanuli Vidalii and Myosotis azorica. When 

 in 1870 Mr. Godmaii planned a complete natural history of the 

 Archipelago, Mr. Watson wrote for him the botanical part of the 

 work, which is not only valuable as a scientific production, but 

 is in style eminently characteristic of its author. 



During his early years, long before railway times, he made 

 many excursions in different parts of Britain, especially for the 



