JDH thanks Asa Gray for sending him some boxes of roots. He has received useful information regarding North American Pines from George Engelmann, whom he wishes would also study American oaks. Mentions: a case of Sikkim Rhododendrons for H. Hunnewell, death of John Torrey, sending Bolander subtropical plants including hardier palms. Some boxes from Gray arrived smashed, some things were lost possibly including the Pinguicula & Chaptalia. JDH owes Charles Sprague Sargent a letter. Ashes are hopeless, the arboretum has been hard work the past winter. JDH will go to France with Thomas Henry Huxley [THH] who has been recommended a holiday for his health. George Bentham is working on Mimosas for Martius' Flora. William Thiselton-Dyer is to withdraw from the Horticultural Society & give a series of lectures on botany at South Kensington for the National School teachers. JDH explains what form the lectures will take, they are modelled after THH's zoology lectures. JDH has been unwell but is recovered & has resumed work on the Vaccineae for GENERA PLANTARUM. Welwitsch affair not yet settled. Owen's wife has died. The Royal Commission will recommend that RBG Kew become the national herbarium with a separate Paleontological one at the British Museum [of Natural History].

JDH thanks Asa Gray for sending Elliottia & asks if anyone has fruit of it. He is unsure where to place it in relation to other genera. He is sure Cyrilla is near Ilex & Olacineae[?]. JDH has received the Aquilegia[?] roots & copy of BOTANICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. Mentions the visit of Mr & Mrs Sargent &, quoting [Charles] Dickens, describes the lady as "plump and conformable". Asks where Gray saw Rodgersia podophylla advertised. Mentions the reputations of [John Louis Rodolphe] Aggassiz & Humboldt. Calls the idea of trying to disprove [Charles] Darwin's theory before Congress "humiliating". Mentions some excellent apples. [The letter is unsigned and possibly imcomplete.]

JDH has not replied to Asa Gray's letters earlier as he has been busy with Linnean & Royal Society business & there has been illness in the family, including whooping cough & measles. Mentions his 'presidential Soiree', which was very well attended, including by Charles Darwin. Also mentions selecting new candidates for the Royal Society. Explains his reasons for declining further offers of knighthood, at this point he feels he can only accept an offer of K.C.B. [Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath] as recognition of his Presidency of the Royal Society. Has received Paris Lambertii[sic] & Abies Alba & hopes Gray has got the Thistles. Comments that one Miss Kingsley is very engaging, that his sister Bessy [Elizabeth] is melancholic, that he likes one Mr Eliott, & asks about Gray's duties as a member of the Smithsonian Institution Board. Discusses George Bentham distancing himself from the Linnean Society & its resultant decline. [George] Allman will be the next President of the Linnean Society. JDH describes his busy schedule on Royal Society Council meeting days. Whilst he is away [Sir Richard] Strachey & [Sir Andrew Crombie] Ramsay will take the Chair. Thanks Gray for a postal order & apologises for not thanking Ross for some apples. Mentions Mrs Gray's fall & recovery. Tyndale wants JDH to take Presidency of the British Association at Belfast, his inaugural address will be on insectivorous plants: the effect of Carbonate of Ammonia on Nepenthes, specifically on glands in the pitcher. Promises to send Gray 'the Wedgewood medallion'. Explains that a Miss James referred to a portrait of Linnaeus but it was not by Flaxman who worked very little for Wedgewood.

JDH explains he has not written to Asa Gray recently because he is particularly busy during the absence of his aide, William Turner Thiselton-Dyer, who is at South Kensington. JDH is working on a botanical primer for the Macmillan series & doing experiments for himself & Charles Darwin on insectivorous or carnivorous plants: Cephalotes, Nepenthes & Sarracenia. Has neglected work on GENERA PLANTARUM. Has had difficulty getting good systematic contributions for the FLORA INDICA, Thiselton-Dyer & Hiern did good work but Edgeworth, Masters, Andrews & Lawson all needed a lot of correction. Tells Gray about his trip to Florence, Italy for a Congress, run badly by Filippo Parlatore who JDH calls a Tragopogon [also known as 'goatsbeard'] & a 'little toad'. During the trip he saw the Miss Horners, Bakle & his wife, & Mrs Harvey. He also went to Paris, Nimes, Montpelier, Antibes, Hanbury's brother's place near Montara, Genoa, Spezzie [La Spezia] & Pisa & returned via Venice, the Brenner [Pass] Munich & Paris. [Letter appears incomplete. It bears no signature but is written in the hand of Joseph Dalton Hooker.]

JDH thanks Asa Gray for his letter of 27 Aug. Mentions spiral vessels. Comments on English knowledge of foreign developments, comparing his systematic botany to the German way. Will be glad of a copy of Valron's[?] Index. Has received the Thistles & Torrey's sheets by Dix. Praises Belfast meeting, particularly lectures by [Thomas Henry] Huxley & [John] Lubbock. Apologises that Farlow's paper was not acknowledged. JDH is sending Gray a copy of his Belfast address, it will be published in THE PROCEEDINGS. Notices of Edwards' observations have been omitted in CURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE, JDH implies because of a quarrel. JDH has stayed out of the Linnean Society row but is embroiled in conflict with [William] Carruthers who has complained to the Admiralty, in the name of the British Museum Trustees & through the Librarian Mr Winter Jones, that JDH has not been sharing botanical collections. Including unfounded appeals about the Welwitch collection, collections made by [William] Purdie & [Charles] Wilford, & JDH's own Antarctica collections; which were shared with Captain [James Clark] Ross. It is part of the campaign by Carruthers & [Richard] Owen to undermine JDH's position as a British Museum Trustee. Haveley[?] has also been drawn into the dispute. The illiberal museum policy is the real reason none of the Public Offices send specimens there. 'Old Gray' [John Edward Gray] will retire & be replaced by Gunther but Owen will not go until he has moved the [natural history] collection to the new building [Natural History Museum]. The natural history trusteeship, comprised of JDH, Duke of Devonshire, Duke of Argyll, Viscount Eversley, Sir P. Egerton, Sir G. Burrows is ignored. Thanks Gray for Fremontia seed, shared with [Gustave Adolphe] Thuret & [Thomas] Hanbury. He will continue to send seed to Bolander through the Smithsonian. Advises that Baker will send Refugia[?] & JDH will pay Leeman. Asks what lower Cryptogams of Wilkes' voyage have been published.

JDH is behind with correspondence as usual, he has been promised some assistance by the Treasury. He thanks Asa Gray for delicate notice of JDH's wife. States Romneya seeds are acceptable. Describes the recent poor health of [Charles] Lyell, including epileptic fits. Mentions books for the Linnean & Horticultural Societies. Sargent has written & JDH has received his trees. Expresses how touched he is by Mrs Gray's letter to his sister. Notes Sechium is: 'all right'. The Catalogue of Scientific Papers is on the agenda for the next Library[?] meeting. From what Henry has written JDH is not clear whether the collections of [William] Jameson were bought or lent. Jameson died on the road from Guayaquil to Quito, he was over 80 & did not have sufficient money or food for the trip. Jameson's family did not support his botanising, he had family in Quito & Dundee & his representative is probably a son who was living in Chile. JDH asks that this letter be forwarded to Miss Grace Ellis, a friend of Tyndale. Tyndale has sent JDH some "wood-hangings".

JDH informs Asa Gray that he is very busy & feeling the weight of his responsibilities. Hs main concern is [his daughter] Harriet Hooker's health. She will be sent to the South of France, probably to stay with friends in Cannes, later JDH will join her & they will travel to Algiers to visit Colonel Playfair. JDH & Playfair will make a tour of Algiers from April to May [1875]. JDH's Aunt, Mrs Dawson Turner of Liverpool, will keep the house whilst JDH is away. Her children have been guests of JDH as they have no house, their father Dawson William Turner is in confinement but will soon be out & JDH hopes to send him on a long voyage 'to secure his health'. JDH has found that Elliottia is synonymous with Tripetaleia of Japan. He continues to work on GENERA PLANTARUM, currently struggling with Sapotaceae. Mentions that Miguel has made omissions of [Richard] Spruce & [George] Gardner in the FLORA BRASILIENSIS. Asks Gray for specimens of Shortia, he has kept it distinct from Schizocodon following [Carl Johann] Maximovicz, whose work he admires. By contrast he does not like the way Baillon works.

JDH has received Asa Gray's letter of 12 Feb [1875]. He reports that his great friend [Sir Charles] Lyell is dead. JDH got up a petition for Lyell's burial in Westminster Abbey, signed by fellows of the Royal, Linnean & Geological Societies, & Stanley has as good as offered this honour. Lyell's brother died 3 weeks earlier. Mentions Gray's rheumatism. Dismisses Mrs Sullivant & advises Gray to do the same. Gray's request for catalogues of scientific papers has not yet come before the Royal Society Library Committee. JDH is sending Gray's herbarium [Harvard University Herbarium] a copy as a gift from himself, the cost will be more than covered by the sale of Gay's duplicate specimens so he will also send the SYNOPSIS FILICUM & Plate III of FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA. Accepts Gray's offer of Jamaican plants, though he cannot be certain they are new. [George] Bentham seems well but is plagued by sudden attacks of diarrhoea. In an additional annotation JDH mentions the [William] Carruthers affair & that: 'Nathaniel Lindley is Counsel for the King'.

JDH informs Asa Gray that he has just visited his friend from Nepal, Brian Houghton Hodgson & also his sister in law Mrs Barnard. William Turner Thiselton-Dyer has been organising books & manuscripts at RBG Kew. JDH thanks Gray for his criticisms on GENERA PLANTARUM, specifically mentioning his own & [George] Bentham's work on Vaccinieae & Orabancheae incl Hypopithys, various Andromeda species, oxycoccos & whether Gaylussacia is a natural genus. Asks for Gray to clarify his stance on whether Orobanche should be made a separate order or part of Ericaceae. JDH has been assured by Bureau & Decaisne that there is no Pleuricospora in Borgeau's Mexican collection. Agrees that Gray, not Lindley, should have been acknowledged under Diapensiaceae, though it is a weak order that JDH considered putting into Ericaceae. JDH does not agree with Gray's desire to be acknowledged under Galax. JDH, Thiselton-Dyer, Oliver & Baker were all unaware of Gray's conspectus of Mertensia & JDH complains that he cannot be expected to keep up with all of Gray's extensive work. Thanks Gray for seeds of Arctostaphylos bicolor. Hopes Jackson & plant case have arrived. Harriet [Hooker later Thiselton-Dyer, Hooker's daughter] & co will return from Boulogne the following week. Harriet is generally a good housekeeper but as she is pretty she is asked out a lot & is 'too lazy to take the lead as head of the house' JDH is kept very busy with family matters & is glad to have the help of Mrs Turner & a cousin who will recommence their stay with the Hooker's once returned from Boulogne.

JDH informs Asa Gray that he is writing to Waldo Ross to thank him for a barrel of apples. JDH has received Gray's letter of 6 Dec [1875] & thanks him for a second copy of AESTIVATION AND TERMINOLOGY. JDH agrees with Gray regarding the importance of keeping [herbarium] material out of bad hands. He praises Decaisne's Pirus essay & Gray's notes in it, but notes that [Henri Ernest] Baillon has inserted a mistake into Decaisne's work; regarding the position of ovules. JDH dismisses Baillon's HISTOIRE [DES PLANTES] & calls his work on Phytolacceae a poor rehash of a bad work by Moquin-Tandon. JDH is puzzled what to do with Stegnosperma. He & George Bentham[GB] have decided to keep up Paronychieae [in GENERA PLANTARUM] & put Limeum & Gisekia [Gisechia] into Mollugineae. JDH has done Nyotaginea & had a dreadful task with Mirabilis Oxybaphus & co. But with GB's agreement kept Mirabilis for the big flowers & Oxybaphus for the small as a poor compromise. He offers to send Gray the glossary. He thinks Gray's varieties of O. cervantesii are both good distinct species. JDH is now working on Paronychieae & GB on Labiatae. Acanthaceae is being printed, to be followed by Verbenaceae. In response to Gray's entreaty JDH states he cannot visit him in the USA as he has 6 children to deal with. Hardy will go to New York in July & JDH would like to visit Gray at that time. Parish lives up to expectations. Diggs has given another grant to print the CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS for 1863-73. GB has recovered from a cold. Munro has settled near Taunton. [Thomas] Thomson has been very ill, he lives near Maidstone. [Charles Robert] Darwin is well, for him.

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].