George Watt
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| George Watt | |
|---|---|
 George Watt, in a portrait held in the archives of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
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| Born | 24 April 1851 Old Meldrum, Aberdeenshire, Scotland |
| Died | 2 April 1930 Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Physician and botanist |
| Institutions | Bengal Education Department; Department of Revenue and Agriculture, Government of India |
| Known for | A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India |
| Collector name on accessions | G. Watt |
| Botanical author abbreviation | G.Watt |
George Watt (24 April 1851 – 2 April 1930) was a Scottish physician and botanist in the service of the Government of India. He compiled A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India (1885–1893) and from 1887 was the government's Reporter on Economic Products.[1][2] The hemp article in the Dictionary was reprinted by the House of Commons in 1893 and quoted by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, to which Watt also sent a written report.[3][4] Watt gave his private herbarium to the University of Edinburgh in 1892.[5] Its cannabis sheets, now at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, were gathered between 1878 and 1890 in the Punjab, Sikkim and the hills around Shimla and Kullu.[6] He was knighted in 1903.[7]
Field botany
Watt studied at Aberdeen, where he assisted George Dickie in botany. He graduated MB and CM at Glasgow in 1873.[5] He was prosector to the professor of anatomy at Glasgow when Joseph Dalton Hooker nominated him at the India Office for a new chair of botany at the Presidency College, Calcutta. He reached Bengal in November 1873.[5] In the following years Watt published as a professor of botany in the Bengal Educational Service.[8] Burkill records, however, that he never taught in Calcutta. After his patron, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal Sir George Campbell, retired in 1874, Watt was placed in the Bengal Education Department and sent to the college at Hooghly.[5]
In these years Watt devised field books of one hundred numbered sheets with detachable tag-labels, so that each specimen carried the number of its field note. Burkill wrote in 1931 that such field books had come into wide use and that Watt's own numbering had passed 9,000 by the end of his Indian career.[5] The printed tag on one of his Mashobra sheets reads "Field No. 9393" above "Herb. G. Watt."[9]
Two vacation journeys led to papers in the Journal of the Linnean Society.[5] A journey through Chamba State took him over the passes from the Ravi basin into the upper Chenab, which he described in a paper read to the society in November 1880. At Keylong he examined the collection of Lahaul plants kept by the Moravian missionaries.[8] In Sikkim he collected at Jongri. New species of Primula and Androsace from his material were published under his name in 1882, after revision by Hooker.[10] At his own request he then joined the Burma–Manipur boundary commission as a medical officer, with leave to collect plants.[5] He spent the greater part of a year in Manipur and drew on the diary he kept there for "The aboriginal tribes of Manipur" (1887).[11] Burkill notes that he never finished working up the botanical collections from the commission.[5]
Reporter on Economic Products
Watt's administrative career began at the Calcutta International Exhibition of 1883–84, where he was put in charge of the Economic Court. For it he compiled a catalogue of the economic products of India of more than 1,700 pages, which served as a request for exhibits from the provinces, as the plan of the court and as its catalogue.[5] The Government of India's Department of Revenue and Agriculture retained him to expand the catalogue into a dictionary and to prepare the Indian economic court for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886.[5][12] On 28 June 1886, as the officer in charge of that court, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire.[13] In 1887 he became Reporter on Economic Products to the Government of India, a newly created post.[2][7]
The Dictionary appeared in six volumes between 1885 and 1893, the last in four parts, with an index in 1896.[1] In the preface to its first volume Watt wrote that the time available had largely ruled out original investigation of disputed questions, so that authors' opinions, even where they conflicted, had been placed side by side.[12] Stebbing emphasised its dependence on district officers and forest officers throughout India, many of whom answered inquiries that Watt had circulated.[2] Burkill answered critics who found no evaluation of products in it by recalling that Watt "had orders to compile and not to review".[5]
From 1892 to 1903 Watt edited the Agricultural Ledger.[1][2] He also formed the permanent economic court of the Indian Museum in Calcutta, opened to the public in 1900.[5] In 1894 he presided over the pharmacological section of the Indian Medical Congress. He joined the Indigenous Drugs Committee in 1901 and drafted its report as secretary.[2] In 1901 he was also called away from a revision of the Dictionary to organise the exhibition of Indian art held at Delhi for the Durbar of 1903, whose catalogue he wrote.[5][14] Burkill describes the knighthood as his reward for that exhibition.[5]
The revision became an abridgement dealing with commercial products only. Watt wrote it between 1904 and 1907 under a committee chaired by William Thiselton-Dyer of Kew, working largely from material sent from India by I. H. Burkill, then Reporter on Economic Products. It was published in 1908 as The Commercial Products of India.[15]
Writing on cannabis
The second volume of the Dictionary (1889) carries an article on Cannabis sativa that runs to 24 pages.[16] Most of it is attributed quotation. Its account of ganja cultivation in Bengal is abstracted from Hem Chunder Kerr's report of 1877. The sections on the fibre crop, charas and medicine quote other officers and authors in turn. Watt introduced the cultivation abstract as drawn "from these works, and the writer's own personal observations".[16]: 109
The article states that the plant "appears to be quite wild on the Western Himálaya and Kashmír" and is "acclimatised on the plains of India generally".[16]: 104 It describes the removal of male plants from Bengal ganja fields by an expert known as the ganja-doctor. Quoting J. F. Duthie and J. B. Fuller, it also describes the cutting of male plants a month or six weeks before the females in the hemp-fibre crop of the north-western Himalaya.[16]: 110, 112 The House of Commons reprinted the article in 1893, among the papers on the consumption of ganja in India that it had called for that February.[3]
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 took no evidence from Watt. It printed among its appendices a report he sent in reply to its request. In it Watt described his views on the botany of the plant as speculation that he had not been able to confirm by his own observation. He nevertheless argued that the forms of Cannabis sativa in India included recognisable races, comparing them with races of rice that botanists would not separate but a Bengal cultivator could readily distinguish. He also wrote that, as far as his observation went, the narcotic was not confined to the female plant.[4] He argued that districts growing hemp for fibre or producing only bhang should not face restrictions as severe as the ganja and charas tracts.[4]
The commission's report quoted Watt's account of the plant's range. It noted that he was less decided than David Prain in excluding India from the area of indigenous growth. In the commission's reading he placed only the Western Himalaya and Kashmir within that area, "and that only in doubtful language". It found no evidence of racial differentiation of the decided kind that Watt's examples suggested.[17] Some witnesses answered the commission's questions by referring it to Watt's article.[18] T. Stoker, the excise commissioner of the North-Western Provinces, wrote that Watt's strictures on that government's fiscal and administrative policy rested on "fallacious conclusions from erroneous statistics".[19]
The cannabis section of The Commercial Products of India (1908) judges the commission's conclusion that the plant is not indigenous to India probably correct.[20]: 249 It names the North-West Himalaya (including Kashmir) and, on a much smaller scale, Sind as the areas where hemp is grown for fibre. It doubts whether wild and cultivated plants can be told apart, while stating that the wild plant is "useless, or nearly so, for either fibre or drug".[20]: 255 For ganja it again describes the early removal of male plants from the field by an expert known as the poddar.[20]: 260
Ernest Small and Arthur Cronquist cited Watt's 1889 article as the work of one of the early students of the southern, intoxicant plants who saw no merit in giving that group separate formal recognition.[21]: 410
Cannabis specimens
Watt's herbarium is held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, which puts it at about 20,000 collections.[22][1] Its cannabis sheets include the following gatherings.[6] The earliest, Watt 410, was gathered on 20 May 1878 on the road to Pathankot and is annotated "A small herb on the road sides". Watt 5720 is a Sikkim gathering of 1881. In 1888 he collected at Mashobra near Shimla on 19 August (Watt 9393) and on 1 October on the descent from Bathad to Manglaur in Kullu (Watt 9644).[6] The label of Watt 9644 records a local practice:
A custom in this & in many other localities only the female plants are allowed to grow. Apparently the males are after fecundation of the female removed from the fields or broken down & left in the fields to rot.[23]
Two further sheets come from Suni on the Sutlej, at 3,000 feet. One is numbered 13958 in Watt's series and dated November 1890. Its label states that it was collected by Dr Cooke.[24] The other, catalogued as E00248804, carries no date or number. It is stamped for Watt's herbarium of the flora of the North-Western Himalaya. A note in red ink reads "Growing in a field very poor crop. Plants not more than 2 feet in height."[25]
The following specimens collected by Watt have accession records on this wiki; Watt 13958 (1890) is recorded under its collector, Dr Cooke.
| Collected | Locality | Province | Repository | Catalogue number | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watt 410 (1878) | 20 May 1878 | Punjab | Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | E00248821 | |
| Watt 5720 (1881) | 1881 | Sikkim | Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | E00248820 | |
| Watt 9393 (1888) | 19 August 1888 | Mashobra | Himachal Pradesh | Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | E00248817 |
| Watt 9644 (1888) | 1 October 1888 | Himachal Pradesh | Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | E00248828 |
Later life
Watt left India after the Delhi exhibition and retired from Indian service in 1906.[5][1] In retirement he studied cacao cultivation and visited São Tomé for the purpose in 1912. He also patented machinery for curing cacao.[2][26] He settled at Lockerbie, lectured for five years on Indian trees to forestry students at the University of Edinburgh and served on the Dumfriesshire County Council and education authority.[5] He had married Jane Simmie in 1873. A son and two daughters survived him when he died at Lockerbie on 2 April 1930.[2][5]
The International Plant Names Index gives his standard botanical author abbreviation as G.Watt.[27]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Stafleu, Frans A.; Cowan, Richard S. (1988). "Watt, Sir George (1851–1930)". Taxonomic Literature: A Selective Guide to Botanical Publications and Collections with Dates, Commentaries and Types. Volume VII: W–Z (2nd ed.). Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema. pp. 108–109. ISBN 90-313-0853-6.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Stebbing, E. P. (3 May 1930). "Sir George Watt, C.I.E.". Nature. 125 (3157): 677–678. doi:10.1038/125677a0.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Article on Cannabis sativa". East India (Consumption of Ganja): Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons, Dated 21 February 1893. London: House of Commons. 1893. pp. 155–174.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Report by Dr. George Watt, M.B., C.M., C.I.E., &c., Reporter on Economic Products to the Government of India". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. pp. 228–230 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 Burkill, I. H. (January 1931). "Sir George Watt (1851–1930)". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. 142: 226–229 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Occurrence search: Cannabis preserved specimens, Watt, George". GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Buckland, C. E. (1906). "Watt, Sir George". Dictionary of Indian Biography. London: Swan Sonnenschein. p. 443 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Watt, George (29 April 1881). "Notes on the vegetation &c. of Chumba State and British Lahoul; with descriptions of new species". Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany. 18 (111): 368–382. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1881.tb01260.x.
- ↑ "Digitised sheet E00248612: Cannabis sativa L." RBGE IIIF image service. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ Watt, George (18 December 1882). "On some undescribed and imperfectly known Indian species of Primula and Androsace". Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany. 20 (123–124): 1–18. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1882.tb00180.x.
- ↑ Watt, George (1887). "The aboriginal tribes of Manipur". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 16: 346–370. doi:10.2307/2841875.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Watt, George (1885). A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India. Vol. I: Abaca to Buxus. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India. pp. iii–xi – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ "Second supplement to the London Gazette of Friday, the 25th of June". The London Gazette. No. 25602. 28 June 1886. p. 3081.
- ↑ Watt, George (1903). Indian Art at Delhi, 1903: Being the Official Catalogue of the Delhi Exhibition, 1902–1903. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Watt, George (1908). The Commercial Products of India: Being an Abridgment of "The Dictionary of the Economic Products of India". London: John Murray. pp. v–viii – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Watt, George (1889). "Cannabis sativa". A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India. Vol. II: Cabbage to Cyperus. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India. pp. 103–126 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. II, "Important points connected with the natural history of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa)", paras. 19–22, pp. 15–17 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. IV. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. pp. 6, 175–176 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Memorandum on hemp drugs in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, by Mr. T. Stoker, Commissioner of Excise". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. III: Appendices, Miscellaneous. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. p. 39 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Watt, George (1908). "Cannabis or hemp". The Commercial Products of India. London: John Murray. pp. 249–263 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Small, Ernest; Cronquist, Arthur (August 1976). "A practical and natural taxonomy for Cannabis". Taxon. 25 (4): 405–435. doi:10.2307/1220524.
- ↑ Elliott, Alan (9 June 2014). "Sir George Watt (1851–1930)". Botanics Stories. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ "Digitised sheet E00248828: Cannabis sativa L." RBGE IIIF image service. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ "Digitised sheet E00248818: Cannabis sativa L." RBGE IIIF image service. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ "Digitised sheet E00248804: Cannabis sativa L." RBGE IIIF image service. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ I. H. B. (3 September 1930). "Sir George Watt". Miscellaneous notes. Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew). 1930 (7): 328–330 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ "Watt, George (1851–1930)". International Plant Names Index. Retrieved 16 September 2026.