(seq. 1)

Edinburgh 7 St. John Street
18 August 1828

Sir,

As in every other science, so in Botany, [?]
cannot advance without a correspondence with other countries
I say this as some apology for my writing to you at present.

A few years ago I spend a considerable time
on the continent, particularly in the South of France,
Spain, the Pyrenees, and Switzerland collecting plants, and
improving myself in my knowledge of Botany. I was
enabled to bring home with me an enormous mass
of plants and among them many duplicates — Ever
since my return I have been engaged in arranging
them and have yet scarcely finished. At the
same time I have got to the end of the Rosaceae —
and have now put up for you as a small offering
a packet out of my duplicates — you will find
among them some specimens of rare plants that
I collected in the gardens in the South of France
and Geneva, and which I trust you will find well
determined, as I spent three months at Geneva to
examine De Candolle's herbarium — as far as he had
published his prodromus.

To the plants from the Pyrenees I have affixed