JDH identifies a plant as Wigandia Caracasana, native to Venezuela, which is planted for foliage in the London parks but only flowers in a hot house. JDH would like to take a walk with Lady Hyacinth Jardine but is very busy with work. He has little time for reading novels but has started BURGO-MASTERS FAMILY & recommends it. He reports that Lady Jardine's Oaks are growing nicely & asks when she will come to see them. Frances [Hooker née Henslow] caught a cold at the [University] Boat race.

JDH informs Lady Hyacinth Jardine [later Hooker] that Mr Smith has arranged for a pitcher plant to be sent to her, addressed to the Lockerbie station. JDH mentions the 'exceptionally splendid weather'. He has seen [Charles] Lyell at the Philosophical Club & found him changed: speech unintelligible & looking frail.

JDH identifies, for Lady Hyacinth Jardine [later Hooker], an Epimedium as E. pinnatum & an Elm as an Elaeagnus probably E. hortensis, which is used for making sherbet in the East. Elaegnus odoratus is not a name known to JDH but it could be a newly introduced Japanese species. JDH sends his thanks for some moss, [John] Smith would like some more. He would also like Gualtherias & any Epimedium, Asarum & Sanguinaria to plant out in beds which he will name after Lady Jardine, he also offers greenhouse plants in exchange. He intends to try growing Cyclamen on the terrace by the new range & other similar things that would not ordinarily grow in the Kew soil. A planned trip has been postponed by the illness of Frances Hooker's brother George Henslow who has become paralysed. Frances is not well either & will go to stay with the Darwins. JDH sends his regards to Lady Jardine's husband Sir William. He appears to continue the letter after the signature, addressing Sir William's criticisms of his Flora, which relate to the presence of certain species in various Scottish localities: Erica cinerea in Sutherland, Solanum nigrum at Craigmillar & Epidendrum alpinum in Dumresshire, Hymenophyllum wilsonii in Loch Lomond & Typha angustifolia in Lochmaben.

JDH thanks Lady Hyacinth Jardine [later Hooker] for her letters & for sending Primulas etc. He will look into Pinguicula [to send in return?]. JDH identifies a grass as Sesleria Caerulea for Sir William Jardine & requests some for RBG Kew. George Henslow [JDH's brother in law] is still paralysed. JDH asks where he should send a postal order for the Jardine's gardener. JDH relates the circumstances of Lady Lyell's death & his visit to see her lying in her coffin. Her husband Charles Lyell is grieving whilst still working on the new edition of his book THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN, with Miss Buckley. The Lyells hope that Hyacinth's father [William Samuel Symonds] will bury Mrs Lyell at Woking beside Mr Horner. JDH's wife Frances has returned from Down House & is still unwell. JDH recounts the current whereabouts & activities of his children: Harriet Anne Hooker is in Cheltenham with her great aunt, William Henslow Hooker continues with the fiddle, & Charles Paget Hooker has spent his holiday with Barnard at Cheltenham.

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JDH asks Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer to take special note of how Wilson Saunders cultivates plants from the Cape [Cape Peninsula, South Africa] so they can emulate the techniques in the pits at RBG Kew. He also wants to know where Saunders got the Elleanthus chrysocomus & Cotyledon mamillaris which he gave RBG Kew. Mr Pritchard has informed JDH that [William] Carruthers will drop his claim [that the RBG Kew herbarium should be transferred to the British Museum of Natural History to form one national herbarium] if papers can be produced that prove the RBG Kew herbarium is government property. The C. S. [Civil Service?] Commission have informed JDH that Spink's exams put him at the bottom of a list of 5 candidates [for a gardener position at Kew]. [George] Nicholson, a candidate with no training or references had the highest scores & impressed [John] Smith with his capacity so JDH has agreed to hire him. Thanks to ' [Acton Smee] Ayrton's folly' Nicholson will be on twice the salary he would have accepted, £150 per annum rather than £75. In additional marginal notes JDH mentions a letter from Reynold, [George] Bentham & his Linnean Society 'matter', & asks Thiselton-Dyer to write a few pages on the distribution of [Nathaniel] Wallich's Dipterocarps.

JDH asks William Thiselton-Dyer to inform Mr New whether or not he will be able to read JDH's paper on Kilimanjaro plants at the Linnean Society. JDH is leaving Beitrich for Gerolstein, & will then cross the Eifel to Altenahr & return home via Bonn or Aix. Mention's Kendall's death. JDH's tour has so far covered Luxembourg, Treves [Trier] & Berncastle [Bernkastel]. The weather has been cold & he has observed that the vegetation is not as far advanced as at RBG Kew & fruit & nut crops have been killed.

JDH reports that he & [Thomas Henry] Huxley are enjoying their time in France. He asks Thiselton-Dyer how his class is going [Thiselton-Dyer took over Huxley's summer course in elementary biology in 1873 as Huxley was away for his health]. JDH & Huxley have been studying a volcanic phenomenon [volcanic plug] & subsequent glacial action. JDH finds the scenery beautiful. Although the flora is diverse he is not collecting plants. Asks Thiselton-Dyer to tell Daniel Oliver he prefers Le Puy to Nuremberg & to pass on any messages from Oliver or [John] Smith.

JDH clarifies that he is not the source of a request for Asa Gray to review his publication GENERA PLANTARUM. Especially as he is under the impression Gray would have nothing complimentary to say about his work on the order Rubiaceae, despite the effort JDH has put into & his belief that he has corrected more mistakes than he has made. He notes that [Sir William Turner] Thiselton-Dyer corrected the work before it went to press. JDH has just returned from a tour of the left bank of the Rhine, Eifel country [volcanic region of Germany], with his wife [Frances Hooker nee Henslow], [John] Lubbock & the Grant-Duffs. They also saw Luxembourg & Treves [Trier]. JDH has asked the publisher, Longman, to send Gray a copy of Decaisne & Le Maout [A GENERAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY DESCRIPTIVE AND ANALYTICAL]. JDH is currently working on the FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA with Thiselton-Dyer but they are hampered by shortcomings in [Carl Friedrich Philipp von] Martius' work & the illness of [Michael Packenham] Edgeworth & [Thomas] Thomson. [George] Bentham is currently working on Mimosaceae for Martius' work. A young man who works for Micheli, of Geneva, is at RBG Kew working on Onograceae & Rubiaceae. Bibb has sent RBG Kew a collection of Illinois plants. JDH hopes to go on holiday to the Auvergne with [Thomas Henry] Huxley. JDH also has much to do reforming business procedures at the Royal Society & arranging the Society's move to new apartments.

JDH informs Asa Gray that he has returned from a trip to the Auvergne, Cantal, Mont Dore & Ardeche country taken with [Thomas Henry] Huxley, who is now at Baden Baden, Switzerland. Mentions professor Cresson[?] is working under Sir W. Thomson & has sent JDH Aster seeds. [Daniel] Oliver is in Jersey. [George] Bentham is working on Mimosaceae for FLORA BRAZILIENSIS. JDH shook off a minor attack of bronchitis whilst on tour in the Eifel with [John] Lubbock & [Mountstuart Elphinstone] Grant-Duff. Thanks Gray for his congratulations on JDH gaining the Presidency of the Royal Society though admits he feels 'oppressed' with the prospects. Mentions Gray getting [William Starling] Sullivant's collection of mosses, RBG Kew has received Hunt's mosses as a gift. JDH expresses low opinion of [William] Carruthers & his conduct in answer to a bill in chancery. Reports on the current whereabouts of his family: Frances, Brian & Reginald at Eastbourne, William with JDH at Kew & Harriet in Gloucestershire. JDH describes & highly compliments a botany course designed by Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer to be run at the school in South Kensington. Thanks Gray for putting a notice of [his wife France Hooker's English translation of] Decaisne & Le Maout's work [TRAITÉ GÉNÉRAL DE BOTANIQUE DESCRIPTIVE ET ANALYTIQUE] in Silliman's Journal [AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE]. JDH cannot recall where he got notice of Sarracenia rubra, alias purpurea. [John Gilbert] Baker has sent all the notes of [Auguste Boniface] Ghiesbreght. JDH has sent Gray Ferns by 'young Ross'. JDH intends to make a cold fernery & asks Gray for roots. Comments on the release of further 'Survey Botanical Reports' & Sullivant's supplements. Notes that the South Kensington Museum is to be put under the British Museum trustees, a symptom of Gladstone's 'mad' government, under which he expects RBG Kew has had 'a lucky escape'.

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