Robert Wight

Robert Wight (6 July 1796 – 26 May 1872) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist who spent 30 years in India. He studied botany in Edinburgh under John Hope. He was the director of the Botanic Garden in Madras. He made use of local artists to make illustrations of the plants around him. He learned the art of lithography and used it to publish the Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis (Illustrations of the plants of Eastern India) in six volumes in 1856. He spent the time between 1819-1853 in India and devoted most of that time to the study of plants.

Robert was the son of a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh and was born at Milton, East Lothian, Scotland. He was the twelfth among fourteen siblings. He was educated at the Edinburgh High School and professionally at Edinburgh University, where he took a surgeon's diploma in 1816. He worked as a ship's surgeon for two years and went on a few voyages, including one to the USA.

He went to India in 1819 as the first assistant surgeon in the 42nd Native Infantry (which was later commanded by his brother Colonel James Wight) in the East India Company's service. His interest in botany was clear and within three years he was transferred to Madras and made in charge of the Botanic Gardens and in 1826 he was appointed as naturalist to the East India Company to succeed Dr Shuter. He made extensive collections from southern India from 1826 to 1828, and sent them to Sir William Hooker at Glasgow. This collection consisted of specimens from around Madras up to Vellore and from Samalkota and Rajahmundry, now in Andhra Pradesh. Earlier, a collection that he had shipped to Robert Graham was lost at sea. He also improved his collection through his association with local collectors. In 1828 the government discontinued his position at the Botanic Gardens and reassigned him to regimental duties as garrison surgeon at Nagapattinam. He continued his study of flora in and around Tanjore for two years. He was promoted to the full rank of a surgeon in 1831.

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