JDH has invited Judge Hastings & family to lunch. JDH currently working on GENERA PLANTARUM & proofs of FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA, with the sub-par help of Baker. JDH sending Asa Gray a copy of his [SCIENCE] PRIMER[: BOTANY] for critique. Looks forward to seeing the synoptic sample of Gray's FLORA BOREALIS AMERICANA. JDH would like to visit Gray but cannot leave his family with nobody to care for them. Thinks he must marry again. His daughter, Harriet [Anne Hooker] is ill & has been staying with the Munros near Taunton & her aunt, JDH's sister, in Torquay. Mentions Tyndall's marriage: ceremony performed by Dean Stanley, hopes the new Mrs Tyndall will be a good influence. Lady Augusta died the day after the wedding & the flowers JDH sent for the wedding became wreaths for a coffin. [Sir E. Ray] Lankester has been voted into the Linnean Society despite Carruther's opposition. Comments on George Allman as president of the Linnean Society & his own wish to resign the Vice President-ship. Mentions sending ROYAL SOCIETY TRANSACTIONS & clavis of Nyctago[?] to Gray. Reports on the progress of getting the new Herbarium building approved & constructed. It transpires the site & present herbarium house belong to RBG Kew having been sold by King George IV, meaning subsequent monarchs William IV & Queen Victoria never actually owned Hanover House. The existing building will become a library, as originally intended by Joseph Banks, & an extension built for the herbarium. JDH is called away to work on the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE.

JDH & his wife [Hyacinth Hooker] have just returned from their honeymoon to North Wales where they climbed Cadair Idris & Snowdon. They also went to the Botanical Association at Glasgow where they & George Bentham stayed with JDH's niece Mrs Campbell. The married tour continued around Scotland to the Clyde, some of JDH's 'old haunts' on Loch Lomond & Inveray [Inveraray], Loch Awe via Crinan, Oban via Ben Cruachan, Skye, Gari Loch [Gairloch], Loch Maree, Dingwall, Inverness, Forres, Rothiemurchus, Stirling, to stay with the McGilvrays at Bridge of Allan & with Brian Houghton Hodgson in Gloucestershire & another visit in Worcestershire. Hyacinth Hooker proved an excellent walker & climber, enduring a long walk through the bogs in Skye, a 25 mile walk to a church in the Cuchillins [Cuillin], & a trek to 2000 feet over Loch Coruisk. He wonders whether Mrs [Jane Loring] Gray is an equally robust walker. JDH has found that he is very compatible with his new wife, she has a genuine interest in plants & will make an excellent step mother. Discusses the correct author attributions for Tripetalia & Tuckermannia. Olvey[?] has not turned up. Thanks Gray for Abies fraseri cones & asks what soil they should be grown in. JDH will begin working on his Anniversary Address for the Royal Society. Thanks Gray for a cheque for Gay's plants.

JDH thanks Asa Gray for a letter of 16 Oct pointing out a mistake in a plant description, the plant as identified incorrectly by Thompson & [John Gilbert] Baker & JDH missed the mistake in the absence of [Daniel] Oliver. JDH asks Gray to explain why he has kept D. elegans & D. puchella [pulchella?] separate as it is not clear from Gray's BOTANY OF CALIFORNIA. Baker & Oliver are certain Gray is wrong about an Iris. Baker is progressing fast with the Mauritian flora. Bennett has bequeathed RBG Kew a share of the Brownian Australia Herbarium. George Bentham is working on Cyperaceae & waiting for Muller to send Australian specimens. Munro is working on Gramineae for Alphonse De Candolle. JDH is busy with Royal Society affairs & preparing his Royal Society Presidential Anniversary Address. Discusses a dispute between the British Museum & Sir Wyville Thomson over distribution & publication of the Challenger expedition collections. The expedition was arranged by the Royal Society so they will adjudicate the dispute on behalf of the government. JDH is strongly against the collections going to the British Museum but is in a difficult position regarding the dispute as he is a Trustee of the British Museum as well as President of the Royal Society & Director of RBG Kew. JDH states that Richard Owen [Superintendant of the natural history department of the British Museum] is unpopular. JDH incredulously cites a claim Owen made to the Treasury that the Keepers of Botany at the British Museum, from Robert Brown to William Carruthers, were responsible for describing the plants collected on Government expeditions dating from the voyages of James Cooke & Matthew Flinders to Berthold Carl Seemann. JDH is especially busy as Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer is on holiday in Italy.

JDH is busy working on a new edition of his STUDENT'S FLORA OF THE BRITISH ISLES he compares the delineation of species in the flora to that in Asa Gray's MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES. JDH consults Gray on whether Gymnosperms should be a subclass of Dicotyledons or a group equal to all other Phaenogams? Joseph Decaisne, Gray & JDH favour the former position, Daniel Oliver & William Thiselton-Dyer the latter. Gnetum, esp. Formation of the embryo, will be key in determining the correct arrangement. JDH has sent the corrected SCIENCE PRIMER: BOTANY to the press, he would find such works easier to write if he also lectured. Life with his new wife Hyacinth Hooker is good & his future looks bright though sad times behind him make him doubt its security. JDH's sister Mrs Elizabeth Evans-Lombe, née Hooker is suffering less from neuralgia & melancholy. George Bentham is well. Oliver is working on the African flora, & Moore[?] is working on grasses. Asks if Charles Sprague Sargent can send American Southern Bamboo.

JDH informs Asa Gray that he has resigned as President of the Royal Society. JDH believes [William] Spottiswoode, mathematician & engineer, will be his successor. He explains why he is glad that it will not be [George] Stokes. He hopes that John Evans will be elected treasurer. George Engelmann has written to JDH about his Abies & about Juniperus. JDH disagree with Engelmann that the Sierra Nevada juniper is the same as Juniperus occidentalis of Colorado, he explains in detail the different characteristics & habit of each species including a small sketch of the roots. JDH congratulates Gray on his hypothesis regarding distribution of North American Flora, which ties in well with a lecture JDH is giving on the subject at the Royal Institution. His theme will be meridional distribution & he will compare the effect of the Alps with the American mountains. JDH credits the Mediterranean with less importance as a barrier to another Pliocene than Gray does. JDH has been comparing the flora of the Eastern United States with that of California & is amazed at the differences e.g. in order Caryophyllea. In his lecture JDH will cover Gray's researches on the Japan Flora, his own on Arctic flora, their shared travels in America & subsequent private work. JDH is surprised by the number of Asian types in the flora of West America not present in East America & wonders if they are the result of two Asiatic migrations in different periods. JDH asks Gray's opinion of the last volume of THE LIFE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE CONSORT & expresses his own surprise at its revelations regarding unconstitutional political manoeuvring by Prince Albert & Queen Victoria, especially in relation to the Crimean War. JDH comments on the reversal in popularity of Gladstone & Disraeli, JDH suspects Gladstone's charges about the ministry intending to help the Turks has moved opinion. JDH is not a Tory but thinks the Liberals have made a mess of things.

JDH writes that he & his wife, Hyacinth, are in Ireland. Killarney weather is terrible. JDH comments on absence from Dublin of [William Henry] Harvey & [Edward] Wright but notes David Moore is keeping the botanic garden well. Has recently been in touch with: [Daniel] Hanbury, Charles Dwight Marsh, Robert Lambourne & George Davidson of the Pacific Coast Survey. Discusses his work on the genus Amaranth for the GENERA PLANTARUM, he has referred to Martius' work. JDH gives news of his family: his sister Maria [McGilvray] & husband are unwell, 1 of their children is a tea planter in India. Hooker's son Charles Paget Hooker has failed his medical exams. Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker has gone to Barmen to study German & will then go to School of Mines. John Smith [Curator of Kew] has been seriously unwell, William Thiselton-Dyer has been left in charge of RBG Kew. Mentions: a letter to Wesley; the opinion of [Harvey Wilson] Harkness & [John] Muir on Sequoia trunks; & the Miocene flora of Iceland. Discusses geology, specifically his & Gray's differing opinions on glacial formation of granite valleys in the USA & contemporary formation of land masses. Discusses biogeography: Gray's thinking on commonalities in the Greenland & North American Flora. Disputes the correct classification of: Draba streptocarpa, Arenaria uliginosa & A. rossii. Discusses the correct name of the Cypress Point [California] Cupressus; is it a form of common American tree C. macrocarpa? C. goveniana is different & C. macnabiana still uncertain. Mentions C. lambertiana seed collected by Ruprecht possibly on Krusenstern's expedition. Disagrees with Gray, re. climate & the relative importance of the equator & poles. Does not understand why Gray has called Olive a deciduous tree, or his comments on drought. Mentions specimens of a Texas Amaranth. Discusses Gray's book INTRODUCTION TO MORPHOLOGY & CLASSIFICATION, [Julius von] Sachs history of botany & politician Sir Trevor Lawrence's motion about opening Kew.

JDH writes that he encloses: a cheque for Asa Gray, & Mr Brown's account of the sale of Gray's books etc [enclosures not present]. Asks about 'Mr Millar's check'. JDH's niece Willielma Campbell died after giving birth to still born child. JDH attended the funeral in Glasgow, his wife [Hyacinth Hooker] accompanied him to comfort Isabella Hooker, Willielma's mother. JDH's sister Bessy [Elizabeth Evans-Lombe nee Hooker] is staying with him at Kew on her way to visit their Aunt Brightwen in Norfolk. JDH wishes he had been with Gray in the Alleghenies. JDH asks Gray if he should send Hayden the ATHENAEUM &c for the Survey library. JDH asks what has become of his & Gray's report. George Bentham is visiting Munro. JDH & Bentham are printing the next volume of GENERA PLANTARUM, incl. Chenopodiaceae. JDH criticises Muller's article NATIVE PLANTS OF VICTORIA, particularly his intercalation of monosplanes with Choripetaleae, description of Nyctagineae & figure of Boerhavia. Mentions George Henslow's 'weeds'. Encourages Gray to come to England. JDH would like to make another trip to America but does not want to abandon Bentham as they are working on monocots for GENERA PLANTARUM. JDH praises Bentham's skill & productivity. JDH recommends that Gray work on North American Flora, new edition of his text book & Hayden's report. He suggests Gray read Bales' Royal Geographical Society lecture on alpine floras in GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. Charles Darwin is in the Lake District. Mentions Engelmann's work on differentiating Pinus species. JDH is impatient for the continuation of Watson's bibliography to simplify referencing American botany. Comments on Gray building a library & herbarium [at Harvard] & on narrow minded attitudes towards Sargent. Mentions Clarke. JDH's book TOUR IN MAROCCO [Morocco] is making a loss. Charles Paget Hooker is trying again to pass at the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons, Edinburgh. The glass houses at RBG Kew have been damaged by a hail storm.

Peabody & Co of the United States of America have sent JDH some money, an unexpected remittance of funds deposited with them for his trip in America. JDH tells Asa Gray he is particularly grateful for it as he is trying to raise £800 to set up his son Charles Paget Hooker as a partner in a medical practice in Norfolk. The practice in Coltishall is the same one previously owned by JDH's brother in law, Thomas Evans Lombe, & by a great uncle of JDH's in the previous century. Mentions Gray's correspondence with Henslow. RBG Kew is getting 36 tons of Indian wood & other 'vegetable produce' from the India Store Department. The material is to be accommodated by the RBG Kew museums, necessitating a complete rearrangement, & Sargent would also like a share. Over the last 30 years there has been over collecting of all sorts of things in India due to bad management by the India Museum authorities. He gives the example of Cashmere shawls being left unpacked to ruin in cases. JDH is concerned about the deteriorating production quality of the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE which is not doing justice to the work of the new artist, Mr Barnard. It is published by Reeve & Co who have a bad reputation amongst the trade & craftsmen, e.g. lithographers & printers, for being miserly. Spencer Moore has been dismissed from the RBG Kew herbarium for 'gross insubordination & insolence', JDH calls him 'a lunatic'. Baker is going to work on the Agaves & Fourcroyas. [James Edward Tierney] Aitchison has a lot of news & good things from Afghanistan.

JDH asks Gray for a reference to General Alvord's first account of the Compass plant [Silphium laciniatum], alluded to by Gray in Silliman's Journal [AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS]. JDH has a drawing of the Compass plant to be published in the Jan number of CURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. JDH has had lunch with George Thurber. JDH has received a collection of plants, mostly Cape types, from the plateau of the African Lakes. They were collected by a Mr Thomson, companion of the unfortunate Keith Johnstone. JDH praises Alfred Russel Wallace's book on island distribution [ISLAND LIFE]. JDH writes that he is sending books to Gray, he lists prices for the following publications based on a catalogue: a work by Nees von Essenbeck & Weihe, HISTOIRE PARTICULERE ORCHIDEES RECUEILLIES AUSTRALES by Petit-Thouars, a work by Delile, PLANTES USUÉLLES DES BRÉSILIENS by Saint-Hilaire, a book about ferns of the Antilles, FLORA SARDOA by Moris & FLORA ESPAGÑOLA Ó HISTORIA DE LAS PLANTAS QUE SE CRIAN EN ESPAGÑA by Martinez. JDH suggests that Gray pay £8 for the full 28 volumes he wants. Gray is missed at Kew. The health of JDH's sister Elizabeth Evans-Lombe is improving. JDH & his wife Hyacinth Hooker are both keen to get away for a holiday. [John] Smith is incapacitated by sciatica & it is causing problems with garden duties which may prevent JDH going to Italy.

JDH thanks Gray for sending him notes on the Compass plant [Silphium laciniatum]. Discusses payment for books purchased for Gray. JDH subscribed to Leighton's Lichen Flora so that Leighton would leave his collections to RBG Kew, he is sending a copy of the new edition to Gray. Mrs Bentham has broken her femur. JDH's son Charles Paget Hooker's has been burnt out of his house, the fire killed some livestock & pets. John Smith is incapacitated by sciatica & the garden work is falling to JDH & William Thiselton-Dyer. JDH is relieved it will be his last year on The Royal Society Council, after a total of 16 years duty. He recounts some internal affairs of the Linnean Society, George Bentham resigned due to the appointment of Marie to Kippist's place on the Linnean Council. JDH is disappointed at the appointment of non-scientists as librarian & secretary to the Linnean Society. The Hooker family are well. JDH wishes he could join Gray in Spain but his duties will not allow it. He is busy with the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. Bentham is upset with JDH's slow progress on palms [for GENERA PLANTARUM].

JDH lists some things he has found lying in the RBG Kew herbarium for Gray: newspapers, a letter from Baird about a bronze statue of Henry, a copy of C.E. Norton's CHURCH BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES, & a specimen of Castanea vesca from Martindale with female inflorences imitating male ones. Charles Darwin's MOVEMENTS OF PLANTS is out but JDH thinks that Alfred Russel Wallace's ISLAND LIFE is the best natural history book of the season. [Miles Joseph] Berkeley & his daughter have been staying with the Hooker's but left early as he had an attack of gout. Berkeley has suffered with many ailments throughout his life, he is now 78. Hyacinth Hooker is organising Miss Shepard's rooms.

JDH informs Asa Gray what it cost to send a copy of GENERA [PLANTARUM] to Bessey [Herbarium], Nebraska. He would welcome more orders to cover the costs of reprinting. Affairs of [George] Bentham [GB] are not yet settled, 'Miss W.' should deal with her Uncle's 'intentions' incl. debts to Societies. JDH will miss GB & his help with ICONES [PLANTARUM]. He mentions a caster belonging to Sir Samuel [Bentham]. JDH cannot travel with Gray but he may be able to visit him in Boston after retiring. JDH is always too busy to get away, [William Thiselton] Dyer does a great deal but cannot take over all Hooker's work & has fallen behind with the 1883 report. Synonyms make nomenclature for the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE increasingly hard. Mentions the ongoing 'McGilvray affair' & the deterioration of his sister Maria McGilvray. [Henry Ashburton] Newman & Margaret [Greene Newman nee McGilvray] have gone to California to start an agricultural school, Bessy & Tom [F. McGilvray] may go too, Tom is currently in Canada. JDH's sister Bessy [Elizabeth Evans Lombe nee Hooker] is still ill & her husband [Thomas Robert Evans] Lombe worries for her. Willy [William Henslow Hooker] has failed to pass for surgeon. Symonds is at 'The Camp' [in Sunningdale]. JDH's wife [Hyacinth Hooker] named their new baby Richard, JDH thinks the child has inherited his long head & compares him to a Chinook [Chenook] Indian. Joey [Joseph Symonds Hooker] follows the baby around like a puppy. Mentions [Everard Ferdinand] Im Thurn ascending Roraima, [Sir Henry Hamilton] Johnston's Kilimanjaro collections, & a portrait of Gray. Discusses his work on Indian Polygona, referring to Meissner's work, Amblygonon & Persicaria. GB has left JDH the copyright of his BRITISH FLORA, JDH has concerns about producing a new edition. Gray may meet Morris at New Orleans. Reports that his uncle Dawson Turner, a charitable eccentric, has died of Erysipilas. His Aunt Ellen of Chester is the only one left from that branch of the family.

[This letter is incomplete and bears no signature, but is written in the hand of Joseph Dalton Hooker.] JDH has received a letter from Asa Gray about his travels with his wife [Jane Loring Gray]. He hopes California will be good for the Gray's health, he & his wife Hyacinth Hooker hope to visit the Gray's in America in the autumn. Hyacinth is recovering well from childbirth & the baby [Richard Symonds Hooker] is healthy apart from the after effects of vaccination. Gray's account of Mexico & Cypresses made JDH jealous. JDH discusses arrangements he is making over the estate of the deceased George Bentham, including personal possessions such as the correspondence of Jeremy & Sir Samuel Bentham, some unopened. JDH is working on THE FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA part twelve covering Anacardiaceae. He has completed Aristolochiaceae & is now doing the difficult genus of Piperaceae, in which many of Miquel & De Candolle's species must be assigned as 'unknowable'. He notes that Polygonum was a hard task & that P. virginianum grows in the Himalayas. William Thiselton-Dyer is managing the garden work so JDH deals with the arboretum as well as the scientific work. Nobody has been appointed to the Glasgow Chair [of Botany]. He explains some controversy over the fact McNab was initially appointed by Government before Balfour had even resigned, at the expense of other candidates such as Bower & Ward. JDH thinks the botnaical results of the Kilimanjaro Expedition are disappointing he hopes for better from Everard im Thurn's ascent of Roraima. JDH reports that his sister Maria McGIlvray has recovered from illness. MR Newman has opened a farming school in San Francisco.

JDH has received Asa Gray's letter from St Louis & is glad to hear he & his wife are healthier than in Mexico. JDH suggests he should go to Vancouver with the Grays. JDH reports on how things are at 'The Camp' [in Sunningdale]: the Symmonds are staying there, the Hawthorn & birch foliage is beautiful but the oak, ash & chestnut trees are coming into leaf late due to a cold spring. JDH is currently living at Kew & working on the Indian Flora, THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE & various committees. JDH refused the Presidency of the Royal Geographical Society & the Marquis of Lorne now has the post. Discusses management of the Linnean Society incl. lack of a Botanical Officer: [John] Lubbock is doing a bad job as President, [William] Thiselton-Dyer would be the best man for the job but does not want it, nor does JDH. Discusses Huxley's health & retirement. Frankland also to retire. Tells Gray what his children are doing: Charles Paget Hooker has given up his Cottishall [medical] practice & is engaged to a niece of [Thomas Robert Evans] Lombe's, Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker [BHHH] is done at the copper mine, Harriet Thiselton-Dyer nee Hooker's health is improved, according to [Antoine Francis] Marmontel Grace Ellen Hooker excels in music at the Conservatorie de Paris, Reginald Hawthorn Hooker is doing a Bachelor of Sciences, Joseph Symonds Hooker & Richard Symonds Hooker progress. JDH has finished Indian Polygona & is working on Myristica. Discusses a letter from [Mountstuart Elphinstone] Grant Duff re. a supposed love affair between BHHH & one of the Klustines. Mentions that Bentham's sister was engaged to a Klustine & [George] Bentham [GB] himself jilted a Mademoiselle Dax for Laura Carr who in turn married a Mr Rolfe instead & later Lord Cranworth. JDH has inherited GB's autobiography & mass of Bentham family correspondence, he has been employing Miss Wallich to sort it but is not impressed with her. JDH mentions the health of his sisters: [Elizabeth] Lombe & Maria [McGilvray].

JDH mentions Mimuli, Pringle's plants, Certes, & Gay's plants, as exchanged with Asa Gray. John Ball is in Italy, he is looking old. Wright is dead as so many of their friends now are. Sends birthday wishes to Gray's wife Jane. JDH sympathises with Gray over the tedium of revising works, he is bored with revisions for GENERA PLANTARUM. He wishes Gray had had more time to spend on FLORA BOREALI AMERICANA. Mentions the price of the HMS 'Challenger' works & the part written by William Botting Hemsley. Discusses organisation of the RBG Kew herbarium, especially intercalation of accessions & mounting of specimens. [Jules Emile] Planchon, [Henri Ernest] Baillon, [Heinrich Gustav Adolf] Engler & Ludwig Adolph Timotheus Radlkolfe have all been at RBG, Kew together. Mentions the marriage of his son Charles Paget Hooker, at Morton Hall, the home of a Mr Berneys. Mention they both like to fish so have gone to Scotland for a fishing honeymoon. Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker has gone to Australia to visit Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland & New Zealand. Paying for his sons has put JDH in debt. He is working on Laurineae [Lauraceae] for the FLORA BRITISH INDIA & thinks they need to be arranged differently: there are two genera in Beilschmideliae [Beilschmiedia] & Cyanodaphne is not a good genus. He has completed work on the Cinnamomums. Reginald Hawthorn Hooker has done well in his 'Bachelores Sciences' degree at the Sorbonne & will be tutored by La Touche in preparation for matriculation at the University of London. Grace Ellen Hooker prefers to return to Paris than become a governess. Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer née Hooker is feeling better & Joseph Symonds Hooker & Richards Symonds Hooke are well. Mentions the illness of a Mrs Rothey[?]. Has a copy of Sustermans' 'Head of Galileo' for sale, painted by Miss Horner's protégée.

JDH instructs Asa Gray to keep 'the Berardia of ii.474' & that 'Baillon has prepared Debarara for the other' in BULL[ETIN MENSUEL DE LA]. SOC[IÉTÉ]. LIN[ÉENNE]. PARIS No 35. JDH is worried at his slow progress with THE FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA. He is working on Machilus & Phoebe, he has completed Cinnamomum & reduced it to 23 Indian species. JDH has decided to retire as Director of RBG Kew whilst he is still young enough to enjoy his retirement. He gives some other justifications: JDH has been doing only scientific work whilst William Thiselton-Dyer [WTD], his Assistant Director, deals with the official RBG Kew duties but this cannot continue. The structure of RBG Kew will be reorganised on the departure of the Curator John Smith & JDH & WTD disagree on how it should be done, the Board [of Trustees] will decide. WTD would like JDH to stay on as Director as he does not want the expense of keeping up the Director's house himself. JDH suggests that the Director's house might be turned into an office. Once retired JDH would travel from The Camp, in Sunningdale, to work in the RBG Kew herbarium. His son 'Willy' [William Henslow Hooker] would get a small house in Kew where JDH could sometimes stay. Retirement has financial pros & cons but above all JDH would be free & able to work on publications. His wife Hyacinth Hooker approves his retirement plan. They now prefer living at The Camp where the Symonds will soon join them. JDH's plan to retire is still not public & is shared with Gray in confidence though he would be glad of his opinion in a private letter. In a post script JDH adds that Mrs Rothry has been ill with an ovarian problem.

JDH writes to Asa Gray about moving house, to The Camp in Sunningdale, & making arrangements from William Thiselton-Dyer to take over from him as Director of RBG Kew. JDH is also busy working on Indian Laurels, sending George Bentham's flora to press, serving on the Council of the Royal & Geographical Societies & preparing the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. JDH has received many letters of condolence & congratulation on his retirement incl. a note from Lord Iddesleigh which said that RBG Kew is to Hooker what St Paul's is to Wren. The Secretaries of the Colonies & India have written to the Treasury lamenting the loss of JDH & advocating a good pension for him. JDH has some regrets about severing his official ties with these public offices but fears that he will be roped into Treasury committees. JDH intends to withdraw from London Society. He has taken a house for his son 'Willy' [William Henslow Hooker] in Kew & William Thiselton-Dyer & his wife Harriet will take over the Director's house, JDH & his wife Hyacinth will be frequent visitors to both. There are no suitable candidates for the job of Assistant Director, the son of Daniel Oliver the Keeper of the Herbarium is a good prospect but his father is not keen for him to take the position. A knowledgeable secretary will be appointed instead, perhaps [Henry Nicholas] Ridley of the British Museum, who was trained in natural history by Lankaster. Updates Gray on the Hooker family: Hyacinth is well but tired from nursing the baby, Charles Paget Hooker is happy at Cirencester, Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker has got a job at Melbourne Australia, JDH is prepping Reginald Hawthorn Hooker for Cambridge, Joseph Symonds Hooker is a studious child & good reader, the baby [Richard Symonds Hooker] is lively & still has a long head, Harriet Thiselton-Dyer is in Eastbourne & Grace Ellen Hooker in Paris. JDH is still sorting out the estate of the late George Bentham, RBG Kew will get a significant legacy.

JDH apologises for not writing to Asa Gray sooner, he has been answering enquiries about the future of RBG Kew. He congratulates Gray on receiving a silver presentation vase. JDH mentions the heavy snow. William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] has been appointed Director of RBG Kew & [Daniel] Morris Assistant Director. WTTD & Harriet are wary of moving into the Director's House. John Smith will retire in Mar when he turns 60. JDH discusses his pension. JDH has set up his son 'Willy' [William Henslow Hooker] in a house in Kew. Charles Paget Hooker is at Cirencester & Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker has got a job at silver mine in New South Wales on the Murrumbidgee River. Reginald Hawthorn Hooker is preparing for Cambridge with Mr La Touche. Joseph Symonds Hooker is proving to be a good reader & Richard Symonds Hooker is developing as all babies do. JDH's father in law Reverend William Samuel Symonds' health is uncertain, Mrs Rothry is getting better. JDH is settled at The Camp, he works productively there & in the RBG Kew herbarium & is relieved to be Director no more. JDH discusses his work on the FLORA OF BRITHSH INDIA, specifically Litsaea or 'Tetranthera', Persea & a genus near Eudiandra. He has also been working on George Bentham's flora & proofs of GENERA PLANTARUM. He is still on the councils of the Royal Society & the Royal Geographic Society. Mentions an RGS lecture given by Bryce on commerce & trade, & an upcoming one by Morris. Gives his opinion on teaching geography & declares that teaching any subject is fruitless if people do not wish to learn. He wonders what has happened to the alternative botany once taught in Glasgow & Edinburgh. Discusses [Richard] Owen using [William Ewart] Gladstone & the Bishop of Oxford as mouthpieces support the the mosaic narrative over evolution & Darwinism. JDH also recalls Owen's comments on his essay in FLORA AUSTRALIA. JDH reviews Gray's obituary of Louis Agassiz. JDH is disappointed by De candolle's obituary of Boissier.

JDH has a cold. He writes to thank Asa Gray for the SYNOPTICAL FLORA SUPPLEMENT. JDH is glad Gray is working on Ranunculaceae again & hopes he will 'gallop through Thalamiflorae'. JDH is working on Laurineae, he discusses his classification of Litsaeaceae under a single genera: Lindera. If [George] Bentham [GB] had tried to understand Laurineae the GENERA PLANTARUM would not be complete, it requires the patient analysis JDH is better at. JDH assumed GB did the ones for [Robert] Schomburgk & [Richard] Spruce. The obscure, tropical arborescent Orders are hard work but Gray has his own difficulties with Compositae. JDH is printing Indian Polygonums. JDH comments on the absence of a willow in Gray's MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES which may already have been published in Anderson's Monograph in De Candolle Prodromus depending on what the correct relative dates of publication are. Also comments on [John Merle] Coulter's Rocky Mountain flora & the definition of an alpine plant. Discusses who should replace [John] Lubbock as President of the Linnean Society, JDH does not want the job himself, he thinks it should be William Thiselton-Dyer but will more likely be [William] Carruthers. D. Jackson's biographical notice of GB is unsatisfactory. JDH wrote to [Mary Louisa Wallon] encouraging her to spend some of the money she inherited from her uncle [GB] supporting the Linnean & Royal Societies. JDH lists some of the works in a botanical library that is being sold, it once belonged to his friend Mr Watson Taylor, an amateur botanical artist. He suggests St. Louis may buy them, JDH is considering a price of about £500 but will consult Wheldon. JDH asks if Sargent is right to call Gray one of the "immortal 8" of the French Academy.

JDH thanks Asa Gray for his letter of 29 Apr [1886]. JDH has finished Laurineae but is dissatisfied with the result, he does not think he improved on the earlier work of [Carl] Meissner. JDH's opinion of Nees von Esenbeck is raised. JDH is working on Euphorbias, of which [Pierre Edmond] Boissieu made too many species, he scoffs at Boissieu's presumption that there could be un-described plants of Heyne[?] in the Vienna & St Petersburg herbaria. JDH has not see O. M. Holmes though they were both at Princess Louise's & Holmes met with [Thomas Henry] Huxley at a public dinner. JDH is working on ICONES [PLANTARUM]. He misses [George] Bentham [GB] & is frustrated that his affairs are not settled. He works in GB's old room in the herbarium. JDH is impressed by Daniel Oliver's knowledge, particularly of Phaenogams. He discusses staff changes at RBG Kew: [Daniel] Morris is installed, [George] Nicholson replaced [John] Smith & [William] Watson is in charge if tropical cultivation as Assistant Curator. Mitford, Secretary of the Board of Works, has inherited his Uncle, Lord Redesdale's, property. He will probably be replaced by one of 'mad Gladstone's secretaries'. JDH is working on new editions of GB's [HANDBOOK OF THE BRITISH FLORA] & the Primer [BOTANY, 1876]. Mentions that specimens arrive from China & are dealt with by [William Botting] Hemsley, material from Africa is usually poor quality. [George] King promises to do the figures for the FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA but systematic botanist rarely live up to promises, except Baker. [William] Carruthers is President of Linnean Society, Jackson Botanical Secretary & [James] Murie Prime Minister. Offers Gray duplicates of Indian specimens, they are from collections by Wallich, Cuming & Lobb. [James Edward Tierney] Aitchison is working on his Turkmenistan & Afghanistan collections. JDH would like word of Mr Ashburnham Newman, now of San Francisco, who is married to his niece: Margaret McGilvray. JDH has received no pension yet.