Friend and legatee of Allan Cunningham. Robert Heward was at one time a clerk for the Horticultural Society of London, before its garden moved to Chiswick. After this he lived for five years in Jamaica in the 1820s, managing a coffee plantation. While not a professional botanist, he was on close terms with several leading botanists and made collections of dried plants in Jamaica, especially ferns. Most of these came into the hands of the British Museum. He later published an account of the ferns of Jamaica in the Magazine of Natural History (1838). His own fern collection was much augmented by his connection to other botanists, who sent him numerous specimens. Heward's obituarist in the Gardeners' Chronicle notes that it was a letter written by Heward to the Times newspaper that led to administrative reforms at Kew Gardens.
Heward was especially good friends with both Allan and Robert Cunningham. Allan Cunningham bequeathed his collections to Heward, who presented a study set of the Cunningham plants to Kew and duplicates to Henry B. Fielding (which are now at OXF). D. Mabberley reported in 1978 that Heward seems to have put together a bound volume of Cunningham's plants to illustrate his travels in the Blue Mountains of Australia; the book was found at Chelsea Physic Garden. Heward also authored Cunningham's biography in the Journal of Botany and seems to have inherited a lifelong interest in Australian botany. In the 1840s he published observations on Leichardt's overland journey from the east coast of Australia to Port Essington in the north (London Journal of Botany, 1847-1848).
From the 1830s Heward was associated with the London press, being subeditor of the Westminster Review, and assisted with the preparation of the Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). He also held an appointment in the Colonial Office from which he retired about a year before his death, moving back to his place of birth, Wokingham. Heward was elected FLS in 1836 and is commemorated in the fern genus Hewardia J.Sm. and the species Dryandra hewardiana Meisn., Grevillea hewardiana Meisn. and Pimelea hewardiana Meisn.
Sources:
Anon., 1877, Journal of Botany, 15: 380
D. Mabberley, 1978, Taxon, 27(5/6): 489
M., 1877, Gardeners' Chronicle, 1877(ii): 571.
