William Aiton (17312 February 1793) was a
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
.
![Kew, St Anne's Churchyard, The Aiton family tomb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Kew%2C_St_Anne%27s_Churchyard%2C_The_Aiton_family_tomb.jpg)
Aiton was born near
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
. Having been regularly trained to the profession of a gardener, he travelled to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1754, and became assistant to
Philip Miller
Philip Miller FRS (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English botanist and gardener of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular ''The Gardeners Dictio ...
, then superintendent of the
Chelsea Physic Garden
The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the sc ...
. In 1759 he was appointed director of the newly established
botanical garden at Kew, where he remained until his death. He effected many improvements at the gardens, and in 1789 he published ''
Hortus Kewensis
''Hortus Kewensis, or a Catalogue of the Plants Cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew'' by William Aiton was a 1789 catalogue of all the plant species then in cultivation at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is ...
'', a catalogue of the plants cultivated there.
He is buried at nearby
St. Anne's Church, Kew
St Anne's Church, Kew, is a parish church in Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The building, which dates from 1714, and is Grade II* listed, forms the central focus of Kew Green. The raised churchyard, which is on three sides of ...
.
A second and enlarged edition of the ''Hortus'' was brought out in 1810–1813 by his eldest son,
William Townsend Aiton
William Townsend Aiton FRHS FLS (2 February 1766 – 9 October 1849) was an English botanist. He was born at Kew on 2 February 1766, the eldest son of William Aiton.
He brought out a second and enlarged edition of the ''Hortus Kewensis'' in 181 ...
.
Aiton is commemorated in the
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''aitonis''.
In 1789, he classified the
Sampaguita
''Jasminum sambac'' (Arabian jasmine or Sambac jasmine) is a species of jasmine native to tropical Asia, from the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia. It is cultivated in many places, especially West Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is ...
plant to the ''
Jasminium
Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely cultiv ...
'' genus and also named it as ''Arabian Jasmine'' because it was believed that the plant originated from The
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
although the plant didn't originate from Arabia.
Selected publications
*
References
Bibliography
* Pagmenta, Frank (2009) ''The Aitons: Gardeners to their Majesties''.
Richmond Local History Society
Richmond is a town in south-west London,The London Government Act 1963 (c.33) (as amended) categorises the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as an Outer London borough. Although it is on both sides of the River Thames, the Boundary Commiss ...
.
*
*
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aiton, William
1731 births
1793 deaths
18th-century British botanists
18th-century Scottish scientists
Botanists with author abbreviations
British horticulturists
British pteridologists
Burials at St. Anne's Church, Kew
Museum founders
People from South Lanarkshire
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Scottish botanists
Scottish gardeners
Taxon authorities of Hypericum species
18th-century philanthropists