Received Smith's letter, seeds, and parcel from [Carl Peter] Thunberg. Discovery of new genus of absorbent earth called "Strontites" [strontium] by [Thomas Charles] Hope, who read a paper at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on it. Details of its properties and characteristics. Offers to send a specimen.

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.