Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Drummond, Thomas (d.1835)
DRUMMOND, THOMAS (d. 1835), botanical collector, was the younger brother of James (1784?–1863) [q. v.] He was born in Scotland, and during the early part of his life was at Don's nursery, Forfar. He first became known to botanists by his distributed sets of mosses, ‘Musci Scotici,’ and afterwards was attached as assistant-naturalist to Dr. Richardson in Sir John Franklin's second land expedition. He accordingly sailed from Liverpool 16 Feb. 1825, and reached New York on the 15th of the following month. The expedition moved westward by the river Hudson and lakes Ontario and Winnipeg to the Mackenzie river. Drummond quitted the main party at Cumberland House to explore the Rocky Mountains. In the spring of 1831 Drummond journeyed on foot by the Alleghany Mountains, reaching St. Louis in July, where he fell ill. In consequence of this delay he was unable to join the fur traders on their expedition to the north. He therefore was compelled to confine his explorations to New Orleans and thereabouts. Hence he made a botanical tour in Texas; at Velasco an attack of cholera prostrated him, but on recovering he continued his labours. He embarked finally for Havana 9 Feb. 1835, and died at that port early in March. The plants sent home by Drummond were described by Sir William Hooker in his ‘Flora Boreali-Americana,’ his ‘Journal of Botany,’ and ‘Companion to the Botanical Magazine.’
[Lasègue's Bot. Mus. Delessert, pp. 196–8, 204; Hooker's Bot. Misc. (1830), i. 178–219; Hooker's Journal Bot. (1834), i. 50–60, (1840) ii. 187.]