CHARLES ALSTON (1683-1760), Scottish botanist, was born at Eddlewood, near Hamilton, in 1683, and became lecturer in materia medica and botany at Edinburgh and also superintendent of the botanical gardens, of the plants in which he published a catalogue in 1740. He was a critic of Linnaeus's system of plant-classification (see Botany). He died on the 22nd of November 1760 at Edinburgh. His Lectures on Materia Medial were published posthumously in 1770.