Superintendent of the hardy and hothouse departments at the gardens of the Horticultural Society of London at Chiswick.

Donald Beaton, gardener in Hatfield and then in Kilburn, was the author of several papers on hybridisation of plants.

Beaton’s cross-fertilisations between Amaryllis belladonna (belladonna lily) and Brunsvigia josephinae (Josephine’s lily), and between the former and Vallota purpurea (a synonym of Cyrtanthus elatus, Scarborough-lily), had been described in Beaton 1850. CD discussed his results in Variation 2: 139 in relation to the observable increase in fertility after cross-breeding between species of Amaryllis. In a note, CD further recorded (p. 139 n. 76): ‘The seedlings thus raised were given to the Hort. Soc.; but I find, on inquiry, that they unfortunately died the following winter.’

CD’s portfolio of notes on hybrids.