t —————— 
MR. DRUMMOND'S COLLECTIONS. 45 
ford to lay out two or three hundred dollars, 
would make cent. per cent. here, and a 
thousand per cent. on many things, so that 
the journey would cost nothing. Pray 
write to me at Charleston ; you shall hear 
from me thence, if not sooner. 
“ Dec. 28th.—Since writing the foregoing 
I have engaged a passage in a vessel about 
to sail for Apalachicola, in Florida, in two 
days from this time. My health is better, 
though one of my thumbs is still unhealed, 
so that I have only the use of one hand.” 
The next and last letter I ever received 
from this praiseworthy naturalist, was from 
the place just mentioned. 
Apalachicola ( Florida), Feb. 9, 1835. 
* From this place, where I have been 
rather more than a month, I send to you, 
vid Liverpool two boxes of specimens, 
some of which, I hope, will prove interest- 
ing. This is the most barren spot I ever 
saw—nothing but sand for a hundred miles 
back into the country ; still I have procured 
Mylocarium ligustrinum, Ceratiola ericoi- 
des, and a new species of Pinguicula, which 
I should have supposed to be P. nana of 
Pursh, but that it is quite villous. Also 
. P. elatior, and a species of Gentian not in 
Pursh, with white flowers and leaves like 
those of Pneumonanthe, but smaller. Of 
Norrani olen: = si © more than a 
the description of Pursh, as smaller dus Ss. 
flava, for it is rather larger. There are like- 
wise plants of an Epidendrum (E. conop- 
seum,) which grows parasitically on the 
Live Oak and Magnoha grandiflora. 
This Genus had not hitherto been found in 
the United States, and I trust the speci- 
mens will grow and flower well with you. 
I also send plants of a Cactus (C. fragilis, 
Torrey ?), of the Cabbage Palm, and ano- 
ther species, with several other plants of 
great interest to the cultivator, and seeds 
of many kinds: also a box of berries 
packed in sand, four kinds of evergreen 
Ilex, of Mespilus, Prinos, and a shrub 
which I do not know. There is no means 
of getting from this place by land to the 
extreme south of Florida, which I chiefly 
wish to visit, therefore I shall probably go 
to Havanna, whence there are always ves- 
sels for Key West; for I am unwilling to 
go up the river to Columbia, in Georgia, 
as it would cut off the most interesting 
portion of Florida. My health is tolerable, 
though I am much pained by a severe ul- 
cer on one leg, for which the Saw Pal- 
metto is but an indifferent doctor. There 
are neither birds nor insects in this desert, 
but perhaps Key West may afford some; 
and, if possible, I shall visit St. Augustine 
and Savannah, in Georgia. There are three 
kinds of Yucca, unlike any species with 
which I am acquainted, in the box. 
weather has been extremely cold for some 
days, ice having formed in one night strong 
enough to bear my weight. I sail this 
evening for Havanna," 
Of the nature of the illness which. so 
soon terminated Mr. Drummond's useful 
labours, and his life, we are not yet in- 
formed. Some fears for his safety, I con- 
fess, came across my mind when, in the 
end of June of this year (1835) I received 
from Cuba, viá Hamburgh, three boxes, 
which, instead of being filled with plants, as 
I had anticipated on their arrival, only con- 
tained his little personal property, clothes, 
bedding, &c.; together with a very few ill- 
dried plants and insects, unaccompanied by 
any letter or even invoice. Still, I flattered 
myself with the hope that Mr. Drummond 
might have left Havanna for South Flo- 
rida in great haste, and dispatched to Scot- 
land whatever luggage was not absolutely 
necessary to him in a country where the 
means of conveying were by no means easy 
or cheap, and that his intention was to write 
to me from some town in Florida. But all 
these hopes were destroyed, and my worst 
fears realized, by the arrival of a letter which 
H. B. M.’sConsul at Havanna, C. D. Tolmie, 
Esq., had the kindness to write to me, dated 
11th March, 1835, enclosing a certificate of 
mmond's death and a statement of 
his effects being forwarded to me viá Ham- 
ticulars to another letter, which had been 
3 
