[cflsystems]

This is part of the debug window

{$categories} Array (14)
155 => Array (11)
  parentid => "0"
  categoryid_path => "155"
  category => "Access Control Hardware"
  avail => "Y"
  order_by => "0"
  subcategory_count => "4"
  product_count => "59"
  is_icon => "Y"
  image_path => "./images/C/01.gif"
  categoryid => 155
  icon_url => "http://www.qualitydoor.com/images/C/0..."
9 => Array (11)
  parentid => "0"
  categoryid_path => "9"
  category => "Bathroom Accessories"
  avail => "Y"
  order_by => "0"
  subcategory_count => "16"
  product_count => "173"
  is_icon => "Y"

as you can see there is no description in categories arrays. Edit php file as posted earlier so you can get the descr to show in arrays, then you will be able to access it
I assume you are trying to get this code to work

<div class="bot_cat" align="left">
{foreach from=$categories item=cat}
<a class="bot_products" href="home.php?cat={ $cat.categoryid }"><img src="{$xcart_web_dir}/image.php?id={ $cat.categoryid }&amp;type=C" alt="" />{ $cat.categoryid }
</a>{/foreach}
</div>

after you edit the php file and have descr in cat arrays they yes it will be {$cat.description} inside that code