DRUMMOND, James (c.1783-1863)

botanist

was born about the year 1783. He was a brother of Thomas Drummond also well-known as a botanist. He was elected an associate of the Linnean Society, London, in 1810, and about this time was in charge of the botanic gardens at Cork. He came to Western Australia with Governor Stirling (q.v.) in 1829, accompanied by his wife, four sons and two daughters, as naturalist and acting superintendent of farms and gardens without salary. He retained the position of superintendent for the rest of his life, and presumably he was given a salary at a later date. He obtained a grant of land, and in the second report of the Western Australian Association issued in 1837 spoke favourably on the growing of vegetables in Western Australia. In 1839 he began sending descriptions of the botany of Western Australia to England, which appeared in Hooker's Journal of Botany, vol. II (1840), vols. I and II (1850), vol. IV (1852), vol. V (1853), and vol. VI (1854). He began with the country round Perth but later went much farther afield. In December 1851 Drummond reported that he and his son had just "returned from a long and interesting journey of eighteen months' duration" 300 miles to the north of Perth. Later on he speaks of a journey some 60 miles to the east. About this period his youngest son was speared by aborigines in his sleep while camping near the Moor River. In 1860 Drummond was in correspondence with Darwin who had written asking for information relating to the fertilization of Leschenaultia formosa. He died in Western Australia on 27 March 1863.

Drummond was a competent and enthusiastic botanist who made many collections of Western Australian plants for European botanists. About 1852 he mentions that he had collected some 2,000 species. He also did some useful exploring.

Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 24 May 1864, p. XLI; Hooker's Journal of Botany, volumes cited above; A Story of a Hundred Years, Western Australia, 1829-1929.