Praises Smith's thesis ["Disputatio Inauguralis quaedam de Generatione complectens"]. Discusses the subject further including apparent suggestions for experiments with chickens and speculation on hereditary traits. Asks Smith to use all his energies in acquiring the "hidden treasures" of [Charles] Plumier's [(1646-1704) French botanist] collections in Paris. Asks Smith to buy any works by [Lorenzo] Bellini [(1643-1704) Italian physician and anatomist] Smith comes across. Possible incorrect classification of 'Clypeola maritima L' into 'Alyssum siculum' and 'Alyssum maritimum'. Asks for second part of [Giovanni Antonio] Scopoli's "Entomology"; [Louis] Gerard's "Flora Gallo-provincialis" and new edition of [Antoine-Joseph Dezallier] D'argenville's "Conchologie". Relates various upcoming periodicals with warning they all precede Smith's. Believes Smith will correct Linnaeus with more temperance than [Lazzaro] Spallanzani or Barrington, criticises Spallanzani's "wretched unnecessary trash". Pleased with books received from Smith but wishes [Sébastien] Vaillant had more figures in ["Botanicon Parisiense"]. Sir Thomas Cullum, Laurence and Priest have abandoned study of botany. Cullum and others in Suffolk want to establish a society to support wives and orphans of physicans, apothecaries and surgeons, Gwyn dismisses it as "relieving the parishes [of] their charges & taking away every spur to frugality and industry". Reports a favourable winter.