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Norwich Feb. 26. 1805.
My Dear Sir
I take the earliest opportunity in my power to thank you for the kind attention you have given to the subject of my last, & for your excellent letter received on Sunday afternoon. It has always been my intention to prefix a preface to the Flora Græca upon the plan you so ably suggest. In that every thing will be fully explained. The exact nature of the materials Sibthorp left, the great pains & expence he bestowed, & his zeal & knowledge shall have as full justice done them as possible. His manuscripts when deposited at Oxford will vouch for all this. I shall also so simply & plainly as possible state what part I have had in the work, & the assistance I have received from you or other friends. On these heads we are perfectly agreed. I only thought it necessary, for the honour of the work & its original author, to express in the title that it was not strictly confined to Greek plants, lest some carping critic, finding a plate of Saccharum Teneriffae from Sicily, a new Tulip from Florence, & a few other such extraneous matters, should object to the plan or to the title.