Thanks for Smith's letter of 17 March [1789]. Explains the difficulties he has in pursuing botany: too busy with his medical practice to botanise in local area, and too far from London to study exotics, which confines his studies to books, of which he has none.

Informed by [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert of formation of the Linnean Society, thanks Smith for invitation to join and asks to pay his subscription as a sum rather than annually. Thanks for Smith's botanical information, as he no longer has a London botanical correspondent. Had hoped that [Thomas] Marsham's scheme would have "comprehended the whole Fauna", as on plan of "Fauna Suecica". Requests information on Smith's "Plantarum icones".

Signed [Josef Franz] Jacquin's Royal Society nomination certificate; offers to show Jacquin Dorset if his tour of Britain takes him west. Thanks Smith for invitation to view Linnaean collections.

Wishes to join Linnean Society. Received Smith's "[Plantarum] icones" and "Reliquiae rudbeckianae" and [Johann] Gmelin's edition of "Systema [naturae]". Asks if [William] Withering and [John] Stokes' "Botanical Arrangement" is correct to designate "the Cornish heath" as new. Asks if any copies of [Olof] Swartz's "Prodromus Plant. Amer." are available in London.