Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X, list of scientific terms with Scottish connections).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
DRUMMOND. 1. Bot. and Zool. After two brothers James (1784–1863) and Thomas (†1835) Drummond, ? of Angus, explorers and plant-collectors in North America and Australia. Hence derivs. Drummondia, in Bot. a genus of saxifrage (1830 A. de Candolle Prodromus IV. 49); drummondii, specif. name in Bot., of many plants, esp. of a Phlox, now common as a garden annual, orig. from Texas (1825 W. J. Hooker Bot. Mag. LXII. 3441), in Zool. of a Myoxus, or dormouse (1828 J. Richardson in Zool. Jnl. III. 517), a Geomys or dormouse (1837 Id. in Rep. Brit. Assoc. 150, 157), a Scolopax or snipe (1831 in A. Wilson American Ornithology IV. 245) all sent from the Rocky Mountains by the Drummonds; also drummondita, in Bot., a plant of the rue family from W. Australia (1855 W. H. Harvey in Journal Bot. VII. 53).
2. Chem. After Thomas Drummond (1797–1840), of Edinburgh, R. N., administrator in Ireland, inventor. Comb. Drummond light, limelight, which he invented, sometimes applied also to a heliostat used in geodesy, also of his invention.
3. Eng. A type of railway locomotive built for the Caledonian and later the London and South-Western Railways by Dugald Drummond (†1912), of Inverness, locomotive engineer of both railways, or for the Highland and Glasgow and South-Western Railways by his brother, James Drummond (1850–1918).
