
          botanical intelligence will now be more valuable 
to me than ever: because (as you will 
see by a copy of the new Edinburgh Journal of 
Science which I have the honour to send to the 
Lyceum) that I have undertaken the botanical 
department of that work: & I particularly 
[crossed out: to] wish to give a notice of the state of 
botany in America. I quite long to see the 
confirmation & indeed the completion of your 
Flora, because you work at the specimens 
you describe, & great accuracy must be the 
consequence. I have long had the 1st no. but 
no more.

Another reason why I am so much interested 
in American botany is that my inestimable 
friend Dr. Richardson (the companion of 
Franklin) & myself have the intention of publishing 
a Flora of the British possessions & of the Arctic 
regions of N. [North] America. Our materials are already 
very considerable & in 4 years time they will be 
very great indeed. All Captn. [Captain] Parry's plans from 
his present voyage, are to come to me (as did those 
of the former). I have been the means of sending 
two botanists from Scotland to the N.W. [North West] coast 
of America. They are on their way to the mouth 
of the Columbia, where one will return overland
        