307 
m 1758 onwards). In the later entries, commencing in 1758, the 
family name is given as Aitoun; in all those which precede that 
year the spelling adopted is that consistently employed by the 
subject of this note, with respect to whom the entry in the roll, 
dated May 2nd, 1731, is as follows :—* William, son to William 
Aiton of Wailsely was baptised upon the 28th of April last.” 
The title page of the Hortus Kewensis, like the epitaph on his 
tomb, describes William Aiton as ‘Gardener to His Majeiiy.” 
and there would appear to be no evidence that, officially or other- 
wise, he ever received any other designation. It will be noted that 
the portion of the epitaph which relates to William Townsend Aiton 
describes him as “ Director General of all the Royal Gardens.” 
This designation does not, however, as might be supposed, refer 
exclusively to his connection, as his father’s successor, wit e 
Royal Gardens at Kew. In the Kew Bulletin for 1891, p. 326, 
Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer has given im extenso a minute by 
the Lord Steward, dated 11th March, 1840; in that minute 
. T. Aiton’s title, so far as his connection with Kew was con- 
cerned, is cited as “ Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens.” 
The minute shows that of the various portions, at that date more 
or less separately treated, which now go to constitute the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Kew, the only portion which was not then 
formally transferred from the control of the Board of Green Cloth 
to the control of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests was the 
‘Kitchen Garden,’ now the ‘ Herbacéous Ground. rom that 
the Hortus Kewensis, W. T. Aiton is termed ‘Gardener to His 
Majesty’ as his father had been in the previous edition. On the 
other hand W. T. Aiton’s administrative charge was not confined 
to the various portions of what now constitutes the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Kew. The extent of this charge is not clear but we learn 
from a letter, written at Kew either towards the end of 1804 or 
in the beginning of 1805 by Mr. W. McNab, that “ Mr. Aiton 
*-. . , . has had an addition to his charge by the death of 
“ Mr. Forsyth, late of Kensington, who died in August, 1804, 
