Sereno Watson (December 1, 1826 in

East Windsor Hill East Windsor Hill Historic District is a historic district located in the northwestern corner of the town of South Windsor, Connecticut. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The district runs along both sides of Ma ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

– March 9, 1892 in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...

) was an American botanist. Graduating from Yale in 1847 in Biology, he drifted through various occupations until, in California, he joined the Clarence King Expedition and eventually became its expedition botanist. Appointed by

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His '' Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually ex ...

as assistant in the Gray Herbarium of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1873, he later became its

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

, a position he maintained until his death. Watson was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

in 1874, and a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

in 1889.

Works

* ''Botany'', in ''Report of the geological exploration of the 40th parallel made ... by Clarence King'', 1871 * * Publications by and about S. Watso
on WorldCat

References

External links

Biographical sketch at the Gray Herbarium siteBiographical memoir
National Academy of Sciences
Obituary, page 441Portrait (plate VI) and obituary
by John Merle Coulter (137–141) * American taxonomists 1826 births 1892 deaths Botanists active in California Botanists active in North America Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard University staff Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from South Windsor, Connecticut Yale University alumni 19th-century American botanists {{US-botanist-stub