| William Aiton was a Scottish botanist and first director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He published Hortus Kewensis, a catalogue of the plants cultivated at the gardens. Born in Hamilton, he was trained as a gardener and moved to London in 1754, where he was employed at the Chelsea Physic Garden first as an assistant to Philip Miller and later as the superintendent. Just several years later, he was appointed the director of the newly established botanic gardens at Kew, where he enacted many improvements and published his Hortus in 1789. |
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