Charles Alston (1683-1760)

Charles Alston (1683-1760) was Professor of Botany at Edinburgh University from 1738 to 1761.

Alston was born at Eddlewood (now part of Hamilton, just to the west of Chatelherault). He was educated in Glasgow, but on the death of his father, the Duchess of Hamilton became his patron and wished him to study law. Alston however wanted to study medicine and went to Leyden to study under Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738). In Leyden, he met Alexander Monro ''primus'' (1697-1767). On his return return to Edinburgh, Alston became became Superintendent of the Botanic Garden and lectured in Botany and Materia Medica. In 1738 he was appointed to the Chair of Botany at Edinburgh University which he occupied unti his death in 1760. Alston published various medical papers and an index to the plants in the Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. In his Tirocinium Botanicum Edinburgense (1753), he attacked the Linnaean system of classification. Alston was succeeded in the Chair of Botany by John Hope (1725-1786).