Asks after Smith's health following their parting at Chester, [Cheshire]; his own health has been poor. Asks when they may apply for third volume of "Flora Britannica". Requests recipe for fixing plant specimens and to prevent insect damage.

Has been suffering from gout which has prevented him from perusing the third volume of "Flora Britannica" and Dawson Turner's "Muscologiae Hibernicae Spicilegium". Asks whether 'Verbascum phoeniceum' has ever been considered indigenous to Britain.