Hewett Watson

Hewett Cottrell Watson (1804-81) was a botanist, plant ecologist and evolutionist. He was born in Firbeck, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, on 9th May 1804, and died at Thames Ditton, Surrey, on 27th July 1881.

He was the son of Holland Watson and Harriett (née Powell). He studied phrenology and natural history at the University of Edinburgh from 1828 to 1832. He inherited a place in Derbyshire around 1836. He moved to Thames Ditton in 1853 and visited the Azores in 1842.

In 1852, Watson pioneered the study of the distribution of plants by dividing the whole of Great Britain into 112 areas, based on the then-county boundaries. These boundaries are unchanging and are unaffected by subsequent political and administrative changes. Watson's Vice Counties have been widely adopted by biologists. These fixed boundaries allow modern biologists to compare past records of species.

He edited the "Phrenological Journal" from 1837 to 1840 and the "London Catalogue of British Plants" from 1844 to 1874.

Watson led a fairly unremarkable life -- he only travelled once outside of Britain -- yet became regarded in early life as an authority on English botany after cultivating strong interests in phrenology and evolutionary theory.

Wealthy enough after an inheritance to not need a profession, he became involved with phrenology circa 1825 that only ended in 1840 when he failed as owner and editor to make the "Phrenological Journal" a success. In the following years, and while his reputation as a botanist steadily grew, he began collecting evidence for, and defending, the idea of species transmutation; later Charles Darwin acknowledged his debt to Watson as a source.

Watson's many writings on plant geography included a considerable number of innovations; for example, he organised incidence data by county-level aggregations, related environmental circumstances to distribution patterns, differentiated between natural and anthropogenic origins, and made effective use of the concepts of "station" and "habitat".

"Eleocharis watsoni Bab" ('Slender Spike-rush' -- now known as "Eleocharis uniglumis Schultes") was named after him.

His manuscripts are housed at the Natural History Museum and also at Kew.

Publications

His many published contributions include:
* "Outlines of distribution of British Plants" (1832)
* "New Botany Guide" (1835-7)
*"Cybele Britannica" (1847-60)
*"Topographical Botany" (1873-4)
*the botany section in Godman's "Natural History of the Azores" (1870) and
*several county floras.

Chronology

*1821: began law apprenticeship
*1825: abandoned his law apprenticeship when he came into an inheritance; turned to studies on botany and phrenology
*1828-1832: studied medicine in Edinburgh; met and became friends with the brothers George and Andrew Combe
*1831-1832: senior president, Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh
*1832: began publishing articles and guidebooks on botany
*1833: bought a house in Thames Ditton which remained his permanent residence from then on
*1834: made a fellow of the Linnean Society
*1835. published his "Remarks on the Geographical Distribution of British Plants"
*1836: published his "Statistics of Phrenology"
*1837: worked as botany instructor at the Liverpool School of Medicine
*1837-1840: owner and editor of the "Phrenological Journal"
*1842: collected plants in the Azores
*1844: assisted in the preparation of the "London Catalogue of British Plants"
*1845: published articles discussing Robert Chambers's evolutionary ideas as expressed in the latter's "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation"
*1847-1860: issuance of the volumes of his "Cybele Britannica"
*1870: contributed botanical material to Frederick Du Cane Godman's "Natural History of the Azores"
*1873-1874: published "Topographical Botany" in two volumes