James Alexander Gammie (12 November 1839 - 13 April 1924) was a

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

-trained Scottish gardener and botanist known for his work in raising

cinchona ''Cinchona'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. All are native to the Tropical Andes, tropical Andean forests of western South America. A few species are ...

plantations in

Mungpoo Mungpoo (also referred to as Mangpu Cinchona Plantation, or rendered Mungpoo) is a village in the Kurseong 24 Bidhan Sabha Constituency Rangli Rangliot (community development block) in the Kurseong subdivision of the Darjeeling district in the st ...

in northeastern India and in introducing a process for the extraction of cinchona alkaloids at the factory in Rungbee. Gammie was born in Kincardine to George Gammie and Jean Silver. Gammie apprenticed at

Drum Castle Drum Castle is a castle near Drumoak in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. For centuries it was the seat of the chief of Clan Irvine. The place-name Drum is derived from Gaelic ''druim'', 'ridge'. The site is located approximately northeast of Banchory a ...

, Aberdeenshire, where his father was gardener for 45 years. He worked at Stapleton Park and with J. Veitch in Chelsea. He joined Kew in 1861 along with W.B. Hemsley and J.R. Jackson working for about four years until he was selected by the Secretary of State for India in August 1865 to manage the cinchona plantations in Sikkim. He moved to India and worked for eleven years retiring in 1897. An achievement was in the introduction of C.H. Wood's process for extracting the cinchona alkaloid using a solvent,

fusel alcohol Fusel alcohols or fuselol, also sometimes called fusel oils in Europe, are mixtures of several higher alcohols (those with more than two carbons, chiefly amyl alcohol) produced as a by-product of alcoholic fermentation. The word ''Fusel'' is Ger ...

, from which the alkaloids were precipitated as sulphates using sulphuric acid. He was elected president of the Kew Guild in 1918. He collected plants for Sir

George King George King may refer to: Politics * George King (Australian politician) (1814–1894), New South Wales and Queensland politician * George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston (1771–1839), Irish nobleman and MP for County Roscommon * George Clift King (18 ...

and the Calcutta Herbarium and also studied mammals, birds and reptiles for the Indian museum. He was a friend of H.J. Elwes (hosting him on occasion and organizing Lepcha guides for him) and took an interest in the local butterflies, moths and the beetles of Sikkim. Gammie also collected and made observations on birds which he communicated to

Allan Octavian Hume Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS (4 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a British civil servant, political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. He was the founder of the Indian National Congress. A notable ornithologist, Hum ...

, who as Secretary of State also supported his work at the cinchona plantations. The snake ''

Lycodon gammiei ''Lycodon gammiei'', commonly known as Gammie's wolf snake or the Sikkim false wolf snake, is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to India. Etymology The specific name, ''gammiei'', is in honor of ...

'' was named after him. Gammie married Mary Parrell at St Mary's Parish Church, Ealing on 28 January 1864 and they had nine children, the oldest of whom,

George Gammie George Alexander Gammie (July 1864 - 5 May 1935) was a British botanist who worked in India. He worked on a variety of plant groups including those of economic interest such as cotton and contributed to the knowledge of plants used during famines in ...

, became a botanist. He died at his home on 1 Harvard road, Chiswick and was buried at Old Chiswick Cemetery on April 17, 1924. The funeral was attended by

David Prain Sir David Prain (11 July 1857 – 16 March 1944) was a Scottish botanist who worked in India at the Calcutta Botanical Garden and went on to become Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Life Born to David Prain, a saddler, and his wife ...

and a number of his old colleagues. The value of his estate at the time of death was £5206 7s and his net personal property was £3972 8s.

References

{{reflist Botanists active in Asia