[3] In a letter to Richard Richardson of North Bierley, dated 9 November 1704, Morton wrote that acquaintance with John Ray "initiated me early in the search and study of plants".
From Martin Lister's books he developed an interest in fossil shells; and he corresponded with John Woodward and Edward Lhwyd, as well as Sloane.
[3] In the Philosophical Transactions for 1706 appeared "A Letter [...] containing a Relation of river and other Shells digg'd up, together with various Vegetable Bodies, in a bituminous marshy earth, near Mears-Ashby, in Northamptonshire".
Richard Pulteney praised the botanical part; but Peter Whalley in his History of Northamptonshire considered its transcripts from the Domesday survey deficient.
[3] "Figured stones" were rocks that appeared to resemble parts of organisms, a traditional and enigmatic class noted by collectors.