Introduces himself; thanks for being made ALS through "polite interference" of [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert. Praises Smith's works; his "Icones pictae" and "Spicilegium [botanicum]" are the "most superb botanic publications" he ever saw, and is anxious to receive all of Smith's works as they are published; asks if a new number of "Linnaeus' herbarium" has been published yet ["Icones plantarum"].

Forced to give up his attempt to publish a "Flora Dublinensis" for want of encouragement, but asks Smith's opinion of the sample he sent Messrs White [publishers]; Sir Joseph Banks thought it had "no particular merit", though he knows no other good extant figure of 'Hyoscyamus niger'. Now attempting to publish a "Flora Hibernica" without figures. Asks after possibility of Ireland receiving a copy of Banks' edition of Kaempfer's "Icones selectae". Praises Smith's "Introductory Discourse" in "Linnean Transactions".