Trained as a gardener in his native Scotland, William Aiton (1731 93) had worked in the Chelsea Physic Garden prior to coming to Kew in 1759. He met Joseph Banks in 1764, and the pair worked together to develop the scientific and horticultural status of the gardens. Aiton had become superintendent of the entire Kew estate by 1783. This important three-volume work, first published in 1789, took as its starting point the plant catalogue begun in 1773. In its compilation, Aiton was greatly assisted with the identification and scientific description of species, according to the Linnaean system,...