William Gardner Smith (20 March 1866 – 8 December 1928) was a Scottish botanist and ecologist who pioneered the study and mapping of the vegetation of the United Kingdom.
At Munich, Smith studied plant pathology and translated Carl von Tubeuf's Pflanzenkrankheiten.
In 1893 he began doctoral work at Munich and in 1894 he returned to the University of Edinburgh, where he lectured in plant physiology.
When he died suddenly in 1900, William Smith completed his brother's unfinished manuscript and took up his own surveys of the vegetation of Yorkshire.
[1] After returning to Scotland in 1908, Smith worked on agricultural problems, applying an ecological approach to the management of hill pastures.