Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Drummond, James (1784?-1863)
DRUMMOND, JAMES (1784?–1863), botanical collector, elder brother of Thomas Drummond (d. 1835) [q. v.], was elected associate of the Linnean Society in 1810, at which time he had charge of the Cork botanic garden. In 1829 he emigrated to the then newly established colony of Swan River, Western Australia, and ten years later began to make up sets of the indigenous vegetation for sale, but previously several of his letters giving accounts of his widely extended journeys for plants had been published by Sir William Hooker in his various journals. Dr. Lindley's 'Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River,' 1839,, was drawn up from Drummond's early collections, the botany of that part of the Australian continent then being little known. He died in Western Australia 27 March 1863, aged 79. The genus Drummondia was created by De Candolle to commemorate his botanic services, but that genus is now merged in Mitellopsis. Drummondia of Hooker has not been accepted by bryologists, the species being referred to Anodontium of Bridel, but finally Drummondita, a genus of Diosmeæ, was founded by Dr. Harvey in 1855.
[Proc. Linn. Soc. (1863–4), pp. 41–2; Lasègue's Bot. Mus. Delessert, p. 282; Bentham's Flora Australiensis i. 10*; Hooker's Journal Bot. (1840), ii. 343; Hooker's Kew Journal (1850), ii. 31, (1852) iv. 188, (1853) v. 115, 403.]