Hibiscus

William Roxburgh was born at Underwood in the parish of Craigie, Ayrshire. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and at the age of 17 became a ship's doctor on an East India Company ship. In this position he made two trips to the East up to the age of 21. He also studied botany under John Hope (1725–1786) in Edinburgh. After he entered the service of Madras Medical Service in 1776 as an assistant ship's doctor, he was promoted to ship's doctor there in 1780.
After taking up a position in Madras, he turned his attention to botany. The East India Company recognized his botanical knowledge and made him an overseer in the Samalkot Garden in the Northern Circars (now Andhra Pradesh) in 1781. Here he conducted some agricultural botany experiments and rendered the plants. In 1790 he already had 700 illustrations. He succeeded Patrick Russell (1727-1805) as a naturalist in the government of Madras. He quickly made a name for himself through his progress, so that the Bengali government soon invited him to become director of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, founded in 1787 by Colonel Robert Kyd. In 1793 he replaced Colonel Robert Kyd as overseer and in 1814 brought out a catalog of the garden under the name Hortus Bengalensis.