Sir George Watt, botanist, was active for many years in the British administration in India. Born in Old Meldrum, Aberdeenshire, he attended university in Aberdeen and Glasgow, graduating as a Doctor of Medicine in 1873. Watt's abiding interest, however, was botany, and in the same year he accepted the post of Professor of Botany at Presidency College, Calcutta. This marked the beginning of a long career in British India, during which Watt also served as Scientific Assistant Secretary with the Indian Government (1881) and as a medical officer with the Burma-Manipur Boundary Commission (1882).

In 1879 Watt made explorations in the north-west Himalayas, travelling to the source of the Bhagra River and collecting plants along the way. He then collected in Sikkim in 1881 and subsequently joined four government expeditions, including the Burma-Manipur Boundary Commission, in order to make further collections.

In 1884 Watt was put in charge of he Calcutta International Exhibition and in 1885-1886 served as Commissioner for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London. He became an authority on the economic products of India and officially reported to the government on these from 1887-1903, during which period he was also Governor of the Imperial Institute (1892), editor of the Agricultural Ledger (1892-1903) and president of the Pharmacological Section of the Indian Medical Congress. In addition, he oversaw the Calcutta Industrial Museum from 1894-1903 and the 1903 Indian Art Exhibition at Delhi.

His appointment as Reporter on Economic Products brought further opportunities for travel and Watt thus toured the cotton and tea districts, leading to an 1898 account of blights and pests of the tea plant and his 1907 work, "Wild and Cultivated Cottons of the World". After his retirement Watt collected on the African island of São Tomé.

Watt completed many publications, especially on the topic of economic botany but also on museum administration and, during his teaching career, a primer on Indian botany. A ten-volume Dictionary of the Commercial Products of India (1889-1893) was one of his most significant works.

In recognition of his work in India, Watt was awarded the Daniel Hanbury Gold Medal in 1901 and was knighted in 1903. He retired in 1906 and was then able to devote more time to systematic botany, writing his "Primulas of India" and studying Gossypium. He worked at Kew on his Handbook of the Commercial Products of India (1908) over a period of five years. After his trip to São Tomé in 1912, Watt settled in Lockerbie, Scotland, where he died in 1930. His herbarium (not all of which was collected by Watt personally) went to Edinburgh. Rhododendron wattii Cowan is named for him.

Sources:
Anon., 1930, Journal of Botany, 68: 149-150
I.H. Balfour, 1930, Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 1930: 328-330
I.H. Burkill, 1930, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 142: 226-229.