Box 1 of 2 (A04)
•GB 235 ALS/1 “Botanist Royal,” biography of Charles Alston, by J.M. Alston. Typescript copy (London, February 1980) from the original(?), deposited in the National Library of Scotland.
•GB 235 ALS/2 Plantarum Medicinalium Etc., with ms. annotations. Text block with spine, loose front cover, missing back cover, 120 pp.
•GB 235 ALS/3 20th century copy of manuscript widow’s petition by Mrs. Alston to H.M. Treasury asking for an allowance to maintain the Physick Garden at Holyrood House, 1762.
•GB 235 ALS/4 Typescript and ms. copies of papers and correspondence, including biography of Charles Alston; history of the Alstons of Thinacre-Milne; list of Alston’s works; advertisement by John Hope for the publication of Alston’s Lectures on the Materia Medica, 1770; “Catalogus sive Index Plantarum.”
•GB 235 ALS/5 Typescript and ms. copies of papers and correspondence regarding the history of the RBGE, 1716–1909. Includes manuscript copies in Isaac Bayley Balfour's hand, of Alston's Royal Warrants from the Register of the Privy Seal, and Alston' typewritten entry from Allibone's Dictionary, and copies of letters from Kinnear (1890), and to D.W. Kemp (1904) and Britten (1909)
•GB 235 ALS/6 Typescript and ms. papers and correspondence, including biographical sketches and notes on the life of Charles Alston; catalogue of works by Alston, c. 1908–1913. includes correspondence from Isaac Bayley Balfour to Prof. Eggeling at Edinburgh University to ask permision to copy relevant information pertaining to Alston and presumably history of RBGE from documents held at the University.
•GB 235 ALS/7 Papers and correspondence, including letter from Charles Alston, 1726 (photographic copy); ms. letter to Prof Balfour from Alex. P. Stevenson regarding “the Alston M/S and the Bower,” 1907; extracts from Mackay’s Journey through Scotland (printed 1723, 1729); typescript and ms. notes on the appointment of Charles Alston as Professor at the University of Edinburgh.
Box 2 of 2 (A05) - items transcribed from Edinburgh University holdings c.1908
•GB 235 ALS/8 Typescript copies of Alston correspondence, including botanical descriptions, discussions of the “sexes of plants,” and experiments with lime water, originally dating 1715-1756. "Copies of 'Alston letters' from University Ms These are not enter[?] in the Ms Life" in Isaac Bayley Balfour's hand. Correspondents include Boerhaave, Thomas Simpson, John Mitchell, J. Fothergill, Phillip Miller, John Hawkeens, Keir, John Ellis, Archibald Hamilton, Alexander Garden, William Cullen and Richard Henderson.
•GB 235 ALS/9 Life of Charles Alston, including copies of correspondence (1724–1760). Correspondents include John Fothergill, John Hawkeens, Stephen Hales, Alexander Garden, and Philip Miller. Subjects discussed include experiments with lime water and its medicinal uses, herbal remedies, the making of elaterium (a plant extract used as a purgative), the properties of amber and ginseng, botanical lore, Materia Medica, and Alston’s hostility to the Linnaean system. Typescript with ms. corrections, 107 pp.; ms. notes entitled “Mr Jeffrey’s comparison of the MS. Life of Alston,” 4 pp.
•GB 235 ALS/10 Life of Charles Alston. Typescript copy (see above) "Alston's Life, from an old manuscript - Isaac Bayley Balfour's hand).
