the examples given by Watt concerns the dynamics between grasses and dwarf-shrubs in sandy heathland. The 50th anniversary of the paper was celebrated by a special issue of the Journal of Vegetation Science. Watt published a long series of scientific papers in the New Phytologist under the collective heading "Contributions to the ecology of bracken" (1940–1971). Watt was a posthumous co-author of the substantive account on bracken in the Biological Flora of the British Isles. Watt wrote a series of preliminary drafts that were extended and updated by his co-author. Much of Watt's field studies were centred on the Breckland not far from Cambridge. Here, he studied the effect of grazing and dereliction on grassland vegetation. References Further reading Chrono-Biographical Sketch Bracken database 1892 births 1985 deaths People from Aberdeenshire People educated at Robert Gordon's College Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Academics of the University of Aberdeen Academics of the University of Cambridge Scottish botanists Scottish ecologists Plant ecologists Fellows of the Royal Society