Margaret Jane Benson (20 October 1859 – 20 June 1936) was an English botanist specialising in paleobotany, and one of the first female members of the Linnean Society of London.

[2] She travelled extensively with Ethel Sargant, collecting specimens, laboratory equipment, and meeting other botanists around the world.

Her students included Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, Theodora Lisle Prankerd, Nesta Ferguson, and Emily Mary Berridge.

[7][2] She gained a Marion Kennedy research scholarship[7] and earned her doctorate in 1894 from the University of London, working with Francis Wall Oliver.

[5] Upon her retirement in 1922,[5] Benson was succeeded by Professor Elizabeth Marianne Blackwell as Head of Botany at Royal Holloway College.