A relatively obscure figure,[1] her works were considered valuable by European botanists who lacked access to South American flora.

Smith was born in Llanfwrog near Ruthin, North Wales, on 29 January 1804, the third child of at least seven children of Colonel Joseph and Dorothy Peers.

[3] Smith and the remaining children soon joined her husband in Peru, taking the sailing route around Cape Horn.

The works comprising the volume were produced between 1850 and 1853 during the short time that Smith was in Peru with her second husband (who was employed by a mining company).

It was acquired by the Crewe Hall library and then by Paul and Rachel Mellon in 1957 and is now held among the rare books and manuscripts at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia, US.