Charles Alston (1683 – 22 November 1760) was a Scottish botanist.
Alston was born in Hamilton. In 1715 he went to Leyden to study under the Dutch physician Hermann Boerhaave. On his return to Scotland he became lecturer in materia medica and botany at Edinburgh and also superintendent of the botanical gardens. He was a critic of Linnaeus's system of plant classification.
He is buried in Canongate Kirkyard in Edinburgh.
The tree genus Alstonia is named after him.
| Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about Charles Alston. |