(seq. 1)

24 'Dec. 1811

Salt
Butter
Flour

[?] S.C.
Dec
27 12 1/4

Stephen Elliott Esq. {Esquire}
Mail Beaufort

Pineville, Dec. 24 1811

Indeed, my dear Sir, no apology could have been
necessary for the communication you made by Mr.
Porcher, for I believe I feel in its fullest extent that en
=thusiasm with which Flora inspires her votaries.
Besides I have never enjoyed the pleasure of personal
intercourse nor of epistolary correspondence with a single
botanist who was familiar with indigenous botany
& thus you may well concieve your letter was highly
gratifying to my feelings.

Very probably you have been misled in
the estimate you may have formed of my botanical
acquirements. I am far from being a proficient, but with
the plants which grow in the various soils & situations
of a tract of country embracing a considerable part of the
districts of Sumter & Williamsburg & of St. John's Parish
together with all St. Stephens I am tolerably familiar.
The mere pleasure which I took in the study of plants
& other objects of Nat. history induced me to take up
scientific works & with these I have employed a
great part of the leisure of the last seven years of my
life but with no view whatsoever to further publication.

Altho' I live in the same part of the country
where Walter spent a considerable portion [?]
& am on terms of intimacy with his only survi=
ving children I have never been able to get into
my hands his Flora. When a student, I procured it
occasionally from public libraries to consult, but
could never find it for sale notwithstanding
I made considerable search. I frequently visit
the site of his garden & have often explored the adja
cent country & thus might be qualitifed to elucidate any
obscurity in his work were it in my hands for
a season or two.