In July 1818, an anonymous article appeared in The Monthly Review (86: 298–305) that was highly critical of Brown's account of plants acquired on a Congo expedition. Brown and others had little difficulty discerning that the author was Salisbury, prompting the former to complain to Smith the following month. However, there was already considerable ill feeling between the two botanists, due to Salisbury's use of Brown's work, but also his falling out with Smith, from the early days of the century. Smith referred to Salisbury's contributions as "trash" in 1807.
