EXTREMELY RARE, NO OTHER COPY RECORDED AT AUCTION (ABPC and RBH). Thomas Drummond (bap. 1793-1835) was an horticulturist and botanical collector, he was the younger brother of the botanical collector James Drummond (bap. 1787-1863) and the first curator of the Belfast Botanic and Horticultural Society’s new botanical garden. Drummond produced two exsiccatae of mosses: ‘Musci Scotici’ (Forfar, 1824–5) and this work the ‘Musci Americani’. His first work attracted the attention of the noted William Hooker. Hooker recommended Drummond as the assistant botanist to John Richardson on the second expedition of Captain John Franklin to the Arctic (1825-27). Returning to England he assembled this two-volume work using live specimens taken on the voyage. Rich states that the work ‘Contains 286 specimens of mosses, with printed descriptions. Dr. Hooker informed me that there were not forty copies of this work altogether’.

Drummond is commemorated with the names of a number of North American plants (including Dryas drummondii, Oenothera drummondii, and Phlox drummondii) and an Irish horsetail (Equisetum drummondii, now E. pratense). This copy contains an additional specimen of Fucus Agarum, quite possibly attached by Hamilton himself. Provenance: Sir Charles John James Hamilton, 3rd Baronet (1810–1892); inscription dated 9 November 1858). Charles John James Hamilton (1810-92) was the son of Admiral Sir Charles Hamilton, second baronet (1767–1849), and Henrietta Martha Drummond (d. 10 March 1857), only daughter of George Drummond. Rich, Vol. II; Rix p. 194; Sabin 20975; Cfr.