Stella Watson

Fairlie Estelle Caroline Gascoyne-Cecil, born on 18 December 1888 in Shimla, India, was a plant collector and a member of a British military family. She was the elder daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Watson of the Suffolk Regiment and Fairlie Anderson. On 25 November 1915, she married Victor Alexander Gascoyne-Cecil. Together, they had two sons: Rupert Arthur Victor Gascoyne-Cecil, born in 1917 and deceased in 2004, and Anthony Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, born in 1921 and deceased in 1998. Gascoyne-Cecil passed away in East Hanningfield on 24 June 1980.

Her botanical pursuits included collecting plant specimens in Peru. Notable among these are Selaginella haematodes, found on the banks of the river Penené, and the type specimen of the fern Adiantum ceciliae, now known as Adiantum urophyllum. The specimen of Adiantum ceciliae is housed in the herbarium of the Natural History Museum, London, and was later described by A. H. Alston.