Has a diploma for Smith from the Lisbon Academy, who are also sending a gift of all their works. [John Theodore] Koster has written from Portugal asking if Smith thinks they are worth paying the high duty on books coming into England and adds that Sir Joseph Banks, who received a similar gift, is glad of having them all. Pleased to see from a letter sent to [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert that Smith has divided the 'Protea' family. He is currently in the middle of examining [Francis] Masson's [(1741-1805), Kew plant collector] collection of Cape [of Good Hope] 'Proteas'. Believes the flora of New Holland [Australia] and the Cape are "both fragments of a whole". Masson has two species of 'Styphelia' from the Cape. Makes observations on formation of 'Protea' flowers through comparison with 'Lambertia' and 'Tilia'.

Wishes to publish a paper in "Linnean Transactions" on 'Fucus'; it will include an examination of [John] Stackhouse's theories on the subject and expand on a similar paper published by [José Francisco] Corrêa [de Serra] in "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" ['On the Fructification of the Submersed Algae']. Has been compelled to write it after a review of "Nereis Britannica" erroneously stated that Velley's work ["Coloured figures of marine plants"] was written in support of [Carl Friedrich von] Gaertner's [(1772-1850)] theory on the propagation of 'Fucus'. Believes it would compliment similar [Samuel] Goodenough's paper ['Observations on the British Fucus'].