Scottish botanist and physician from Coldoch, Perthshire who trained at Edinburgh University where he was awarded an MD in 1808. He was appointed the first First Professor of Botany at Glasgow University (1818) before becoming Professor of Botany at Edinburgh University (1820-1845). Trained in medicine, he campaigned on public health issues, particularly the combination of unsanitary conditions and overcrowding that led to the typhoid outbreak in Glasgow in 1818, and was physician to the Edinburgh Infirmary. He was a founder and the first President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh (1836).

Most of the many names of plants described by Robert Graham (1786-1845) were nomina nuda, in particular the Fabaceae published in Wallich's Numerical List (1831-1832). Some of these names were taken up by other authorities, in particular the Kew and BM botanists dating from G. Bentham (1835, 1867) and later by J.G. Baker (1876). Very few of the taxa have types listed. Some are based on illustrations and several taxa are based on material cultivated at Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. It is unclear if the material used by Graham in describing these taxa was at GL, E or in Robert Graham's own herbarium as there are no references seen to date with a definitive citation of a specimen. Robert Graham collected in Britain, mainly in Scotland, and in Ireland. He worked on a flora of Great Britain which remained incomplete at the time of his death. His private herbarium and library were auctioned by C. B. Tait and T. Nisbet in London on 6-7 April 1846 and the collections apparently broken up. The genus Graemia Hook. in the Asteraceae was named in his honour.