Sending numbered Lancastrian plants for Smith's attention, including all the local ferns. Will send mosses and lichens in next shipment, of which he has observed 'Lycopodia', 'Mnia', 'Sphagnum', 'Phaseum', 'Fontinalis', 'Polytrichum', 'Brya', 'Hypna', 'Jungermannia', and 'Marchantia'. Cannot obtain Dillenius' "excellent work" ["Historia muscorum"] but expecting [Johann] Hedwig's "later works" ["Descriptio muscorum"]. Assisted with his work on lichens by [Georg Franz] Hoffmann's "Enumeratio lichenum". Using Schaeffer's "Fungi" to identify the local fungi but still unsure on many. Asks for Smith's particular attention on several numbered plants. Generally confused by 'Carex', 'Solidago', 'Aster', 'Asclepias', 'Polygala', and 'Hedysarum'. Unfortunate that [William] Aiton's "Hortus Kewensis" is out of print as it is valuable for American botanists. Lists some of his American botanical correspondents: Dr Culler in New England; Mitchill in New York; Barton, Barkram, and Marshall in Pennsylvania; Kramsch in North Carolina; and in Germany [Johann Christian Daniel von] Schreber and Hoffmann. Asks Smith to investigate a box of specimens sent to Philadelphia by Hoffmann but possibly delayed in London.

The 234 dried plants he sent Smith are still in Philadelphia after missing ships and a "dreadfull sickness" in the city that stopped communications. Sending seventy-eight 'Cryptogamic' plants additional to those already sent. His "Index florae Lancastriensis" now published in Transactions of Philadelphia Philosophical Society, offers to send any plants Smith wants from it. Limited usefulness of [Johann Christian] Schaeffer's "Fungi". Queries: asks if 'Hypericum setosum' and 'Sarothra gentianoides' are really different plants; if 'Cassia ligustrina' and 'Cassia marilandica', 'Asclepias tuberosa' and 'Asclepias decumbens', 'Ambrosia elatior' and 'Ambrosia artemisiifolia', 'Urtica capitata' and 'Urtica cylindrica', and 'Rumex britannica' and 'Rumex persicaria', are different and how; if there is a book on North American plants containing figures, and if Plukenet in particular is one. Smith has annotated some of these queries with brief responses, in pencil.