Thanks Smith for answering the enquiries he communicated via Mr Dawson. Does not recollect ever meeting Smith, and certainly not at Sir Thomas Cullum's, but if he has it was at Mrs Howorth's or Mrs Lane's at Acton, [Middlesex].
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The Linnean Society of London Collection
The scientific and personal correspondence of James Edward Smith (1759-1828), purchaser of the collections of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) and founder of the Linnean Society of London in 1788, was presented to the Linnean Society between 1857 and 1872 by his widow Pleasance Smith (1773-1877). Since then, it has been complemented by additional series. The collection was catalogued, conserved, and digitised from 2010 to 2013, thanks to the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Letters can be searched through Ɛpsilon, with links to images and summaries available on the Linnean Society’s Online Collections (http://linnean-online.org/smith_correspondence.html).
Thanks Smith for answering the enquiries he communicated via Mr Dawson. Does not recollect ever meeting Smith, and certainly not at Sir Thomas Cullum's, but if he has it was at Mrs Howorth's or Mrs Lane's at Acton, [Middlesex].
Asks Smith's advice on his proposal to publish an "introduction to the study of Botany particularly calculated for the use of Ladies"; outlines its intended contents and format.
Relinquished his intention to publish "an elementary treatise on botany" and is now working on a "Synopsis of British plants" modelled on the ["Enchiridion botanicum" (1782)] of [Arthur] Broughton [(c 1758-1796), botanist]. Requests Smith's advice: omitting the cryptogamic plants owing to the "inadequacy of the characters" to represent them; wishes to retain the ferns, had hoped to base them on Smith's still anticipated treatise ['On the Genus of Dorsiferous Ferns', published in "Tracts relating to natural history" (1798)], asks whether to present them according to the Linnaean arrangement or to leave them for an appendix with the other cryptogamic plants. Outlines the changes he has made to presentation of characters and synoptic tables.
Asks after announcement of publication of a new "Flora Britannica" and discovery of new British plants recently announced in "Gentlemen's Magazine".
[Smith has briefly annotated his reply]: his volume will appear this year ["Tracts relating to natural history"], thinks it unfortunate that Symons has disturbed natural arrangement of genera in "Species Plantarum" and recommends he studies the cryptogams and compile from his predecessors.