ABSTRACT
Hewett Cottrell Watson maintained friendly relationships with George Combe for thirty years, and with William Hooker for twenty-two years, for they served as mentors to him in phrenology and botany. It was much more difficult for Watson to remain cordial with contemporaries whom he could view as rivals. This difficulty is illustrated by his relationships with Edward Forbes, Charles Cardale Babington and John Hutton Balfour, all a few years younger than him. All three held academic positions, and their relationships with Watson were thus professional ones. Watson had not competed for the chair at King's College, London, with the candidate eventually hired, Edward Forbes, since Watson withdrew his name from consideration while the position was being held for Babington. Watson himself had published Forbes's list of flowering plants and ferns on the Isle of Man in The New Botanist's Guide to the Localities of the Rarer Plants of Britain.
