WAT 



the latter period of his life as an agriculturiil, his afiiduily 

 and a£tivity were indefatigable and perfevering. To fay 

 nothing of his folicitude for the beft interefts of his friends 

 and his family, the ardour of his zeal in promoting the 

 honour and profperity of the church and civil community to 

 which he belonged, by thofe means which, according to his 

 comprehenfi»eand liberal views, he thought to be moft con- 

 ducive to this purpofe, muft approve itfelf in a high degree 

 to thofe who entt-rtained fentiments fimilar to his own, and 

 it will need little apology in the candid judgment of thofe 

 who moft differ from him in their opinion of public men and 

 public meafures. As he always fpoke and afted from the 

 convidion of a well-informed and upright mind, and coun- 

 terafted his own fecular intereft by the courfe he purfued, 

 his fentiments claim deference, and his conduct will com- 

 mand refpeft. If it Ihould occur to any who perufe the 

 anecdotes, now before us, that he was too ambitious of pre- 

 ferment, it muft be recoUefted, that the merit of his fer- 

 vices, both to the church and ftate, of wliich he could not be 

 unconfcious, and the elevated conneftions which his ftation 

 in the univerfity had led him to form, encouraged reafonable 

 EXpeflations of a higher rank in the church than a poor bi- 

 fhopric in Wales ; fo that he could not otherwife than feel 

 himfelf negleAed and difappointed. His private fortune, 

 though his patrimony had been expended, was rendered 

 ample by the liberahty of his friend Mr. Luther, and there- 

 fore he had no juft reafon for complaint on this account ; 

 and yet it (liould be confidered that he had a family, for 

 ivhich he wilhed to provide in a manner fuitable to the cir- 

 cumftances in which his aggregate income had placed them. 

 Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watfon, bilhop of Lan- 

 daif, written by himfelf at different intervals, and revifed in 

 1814,410., publifhed by Iiis fon, Richard Watfon, LL.B. 

 prebendary of Landaff and Wells. Lond. 1817. 



Watson, in Geography, a town of Virginia ; 35 miles 

 S.W. of Richmond. 



Watson'/ Ijland, an ifland in the Mergui Archipelago, 

 of an oval form, and about 1 2 miles in circumference. N. 

 lat. (/ 36'. 



WATSON I A, in Botany, was fo called by Miller, 

 after the late fir William Watfon, knight, M.D. F.R.S., 

 well known by his numerous papers in the Philofophical 

 Tranfaftions, on many fubjefts connefted with the hiftory 

 of Botany, and eminently diftinguifhed for his cultivation 

 of feveral branches of philofophical and medical knowledge. 

 Miller's genus being funk by Linnaeus in Antholyza, the 

 Butiner'ia was called Walfonia by Boehmer ; but the original 

 one, reftored by Mr. Kcr, is now generally, and with great 

 propriety, adopted. — Mill. Ic. 1 84. Ker in Sims and Kon. 

 Ann. of Bot. v. i. 229. Dryand. in Ait. Hort. Kew. 

 V. I. 93 — Clafs and order, Triandria Monogyma. Nat. 

 Ord. Enfatt, Linn. Ir'tdes, Juff. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Spatha inferior, fhorter than the corolla, 

 of two oblong, clofe-preffed, permanent valves. Cor. of 

 one petal, fuperior : tube cylindrical throughout, fomewhat 

 enlarged, but not fpreading, in the elongated throat, curved : 

 limb nearly regular, in fix deep, flat, fpreading, almoft equal 

 fegmcnts. Stam. Filaments three, inferted into the tube at 

 the origin of the throat, thread-lhaped, afcending, fhorter than 

 the corolla; anthers oblong, fomewhat parallel, incumbent. 

 P'ljl. Germen inferior, oblong, furrowed j ftyle thread- 

 j lliaped, longer than the ftamens ; ftigmas three, flender, deeply 

 ; cloven, fpreading, recurved. Peric. Capfule oblong, bluntly 

 [triangular, cartilaginous, of three cells and three valves. 

 Seeds numerous, imbricated downwards, angular in their 

 lower part, dilated into more or Icfs of a wing at the upper 

 end. 



WAT 



Eil". Ch. Spatha of two valves. Corolla tubular, with 

 a cyhndrical throat; its limb in fix deep, nearly equal, 

 fegments. Stigmas three, thread-fhaped, deeply cloven, the 

 fegments recurved. Capfule cartilaginous. Seeds nume- 

 rous, angular. 



This genus differs from Gladiolus in its almoft regular 

 corolla, with a cylindrical throat ; narrow, divided, not ^\- 

 hted, Jigmas ; and angular, fcarcely winged, feeds: An- 

 tuolyza, as now hmited, is diftinguiflied from it, by hav- 

 ing a ringent limb, of unequal and diflimilar fegments ; 

 fimple Jligmas ; and nearly globular feeds. See thofe ar- 

 ticles. 



1. W. fpicata. Hollow-leaved Watfonia. Ker in Curt. 

 Mag. at p. 553. Ait, n. i. (Ixia fpicata; Willd. Sp. 

 PI. v. 1. 200. I. cepacea; Redout. Liliac. t. 96. I. fif- 

 tulofa; Curt. Mag. t. 523. I. alopecuroidea ; Linn. 

 Suppl. 92. Gladiolus fpicatus ; Linn. Sp. PI. 53. Thunb. 

 Gladiol. n. 13. G. fiftulofus ; Jacq. Hort. Schoenbr. 



v. I, 8. t. 16.) — Leaves cylindrical, hollow Gathered by 



Thunberg, on the higheft hills of Hottentot's Holland, at 

 the Cape of Good Hope, flowering in December and Janu- 

 ary. By fir Jofeph Banks's herbarium, this fpecies appears 

 to have been cultivated by Mr. W. Mdcolm, in 1791. It 

 blooms in the European green-houfes in May, but not very 

 readily, often bearing fmall oat-like bulbs in the place of 

 flowers. The iull> is fmall, round, with a fibrous coat. 

 Stem leafy, from eight to twelve inches high. Leaves alter- 

 nate, very remarkable for their cylindrical inflated form, gra- 

 dually fwelling upwards, obtufe, with a fmall point ; their 

 furface very fmooth ; their bafe Iheathing. Flowers either 

 light blue or pale purple, very numerous, clofely imbricated 

 in a two-ranked tapering fpike, with reddifii crmzXg Jheaths. 

 Corolla regular, expanding rather more than half an inch. 

 We do not find that the Jligmas of this plant are cloven, as 

 the generic charafter requires, and we ftiould rather have 

 left it ill Ixia, till it could otherwife have been difpofed of. 

 The fame remark applies to the following. The name fpicata 

 is not fo exclufively appropriate as Jijlulofa or cepacea would 

 have been, but it is the oldeft name, and hable to no objec- 

 tion. This is certainly, as far as we can make out, the 

 original Gladiolus fpicatus of Linnaeus, though he, long after 

 its pubhcation, very inadvertently laid into his herbarium, 

 under that name, a Siberian fpecimen of a fmall-flowered 

 variety of G. communis. 



2. W. plantaginea. Plantain-fpiked Watfonia. Ker in 

 Curt. Mag. t. 553. Ait. n. 2. ( Ixia plantaginea ; Willd. 

 Sp. PI. V.I. 200. Gladiolus alopecuroides ; Linn. Sp. 

 PI. 54. Amoen. Acad. v. 4. 301. Thunb. Gladiol. 

 n. 14.) — Upper leaves linear-fwordfiiaped, many-ribbed: 

 lowermoft hollow, comprefled. Flowers imbricated in two 



rows Gathered by Thunberg in feveral places near the 



town, at the Cape of Good Hope, often in the highways. 

 This differs effentially from the fpecies juft defcribed, in 

 having the ufual fword-ftiaped foliage of its natural order. 

 TheiT flowers nearly refemble each other. Thefe are in the 

 prefent fpecies either blue or white, very numerous, forming 

 a denfe two-ranked fpike, with membranous-edged Jheathsy 

 recalling the idea of fome kind of Plantain. Sometimes 

 ezc\i_fiem bears two or three (uch fpiies, which are then very 

 large and luxuriant ; but in our cultivated fpecimens they 

 are ufually folitary, as well as much fmaller. The flowers 

 are without fcent. 



3. W. punaata. Dotted-flowered Watfonia. Ker in 

 Ann. of Bot. n. I. Ait. n. 3. (Ixia punftata ; Andr. 

 Repof. t. 177.) — Leaves linear-awlfhaped, compreffed. 



Spike about three-flowered Sent from the Cape of Good 



Hope, in 1800, by Mr. Niven, to his employer Geo. Hib- 



bert. 



