British-born government botanist for Victoria, Australia. Ewart was the first Chair of Botany in an Australian university. Born in Liverpool, Alfred Ewart studied science at Liverpool University before taking his PhD (1896) in Leipzig. He then worked briefly in Java with Treub at the Buitenzorg Laboratories (1896-1897). Returning to England he was employed at the precursor to Birmingham University, Mason's College, and at Oxford University, before travelling to Melbourne in 1905 to take up the joint appointment of Government Botanist for Victoria and Professor of Botany at the University of Melbourne.

He spent half the day at the National Herbarium and half at the university until 1921, when he relinquished his herbarium position to become full time Chair of the botany department at the university, serving in that post until his death in 1937. While he was at the university the MELU herbarium was established.

Ewart was interested in both plant physiology and taxonomy and among his most important works were the 1931 Flora of Victoria and The Flora of the Northern Territory (1917, with O.B. Davies.) His consulting and advisory work for the Victorian government led him to deal with weed problems and forestry, and he authored the Handbook of forest trees for Victorian foresters (1925) among more than 130 books and articles in total. He was not a major collector of plants, however. The alpine daisy genus Ewartia Beauv. is named after him.

Sources:
N. Hall, 1978, Botanists of the Eucalypts: 51
T.G.B. Osborn, 1938, Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 150: 314-317
J. Willis, 1949, "Botanical Pioneers in Victoria - I", Victorian Naturalist, 66(5): 88-89.