Thomas Drummond
Contributed by Cynthia Mueller (c-mueller@tamu.edu), College
Station, Texas
Thomas Drummond was one of the first plant
collectors to explore Texas. Little is known of his early
life in Scotland. Records show he had a nursery in Forfar
by 1814, was curator of the Belfast Botanic Garden, and
was considered an authority on Scottish mosses. He accompanied
a natural history collecting expedition to Canada in 1825
which followed along the Hudson Bay Company express route
and endured months of deprivation, isolation and physical
hardship along the way - once being reduced to eating
a skunk to keep full, or strips of frozen deerhide.
This expedition prepared Drummond to survive
in Texas, which he reached in 1833, slowly making his
way there after reaching New York in 1831. He brought
with him two tons of paper in which to preserve his specimens,
and found some of Texas' most beautiful plants such as
Phlox drummondii, which was enthusiastically grown in
England and Europe and soon was improved into several
color strains, the foxglove penstemon Penstemon cobaea,
Herbertia (Alophia) drummondii, the bluebell Eustoma russellianum,
the wine-cup Callirhoe papaver, and Sarracenia psittacina.
Other Texas plants which bring Drummond's name to mind
are the edible wild onion Allium drummondii, sandwort
Arenaria drummondii, the square-bud day-primrose Calyophus
drummondianus, Clematis drummondii, the rainlily Cooperia
drummondii, the primrose Oenothera drummondii, skullcap
Scutellaria drummondii, Schoenocaulon drummondii, and
Stachys drummondii.
The conditions Drummond endured on his collecting
trips through Texas seem incredible by modern standards.
Having made arrangements to go to Galveston, Texas by
sea, he was struck down by cholera while staying in a
small town consisting of only four houses - his captain
and eight others died, and the survivors were so weak
that Drummond almost starved to death before he recovered.
He packed up and sent off about a hundred species each
of plants and birds, and snakes, land-shells and seeds,
and then returned by boat to Brazoria, Texas across flooded
coastal prairie areas from 9 to 15 feet under water. In
the autumn he returned to the Texas coast to winter on
Galveston Bay, where he again almost starved while waiting
for migrating birds to pass through. His health failed
and he endured 'bilious fevers', boils, hand infections
and ulcers on his legs, but was determined to sail to
Cuba to collect and then travel to Key West and through
the rest of Florida. What happened then still remains
a mystery. Sir Joseph Hooker, who had been receiving many
of Drummond's specimens, was sent three boxes containing
Drummond's scanty personal possessions, followed by a
letter from the American counsel in Havana, Cuba enclosing
his death certificate. The letter referred to particulars
given in an earlier letter, which was never received,
so the exact fate of Thomas Drummond has never been known.
Thomas Drummond (died 1835) was the brother
of James Drummond (1784-1863) who spent the majority of
his life plant collecting in Australia, and was well known
in his own right and commemorated by a number of plant
names. He was accompanied for 22 years of that time by
his son John, who was found stabbed to death with a native
spear while sleeping. The identity of John's murderer
was never discovered.
Further information about Drummond can be
found in Alice Coat's The Quest For Plants, 1969, Studio
Vista Ltd, London, England.
