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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.

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All London is talking about a report of the Russians advancing into Constantinople [Istanbul], if true it will mean war but JDH is sceptical. George Henslow has visited JDH. He has worked on the Indian flora for JDH but his work is poor & will need to be redone. William Thiselton-Dyer is to give a series of lectures on botany at the Royal Institution, which will be good for the reputation of RBG, Kew. JDH is with John Henry Lefroy, asks if Hyacinth mentioned calling on Lady Charlotte Anna Lefroy to Mrs Lyell. JDH will write to Dr Low about vaccinations. Everyone is going to 'Stanley's lecture'. JDH sends his love to all at Down [Down House] & tells Hyacinth to kiss the baby for him.

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JDH thanks Susan Hodgson for a letter about her husband Brian Houghton Hodgson. JDH recently dined with Sir Henry Verney, Childers & his daughter, & Mrs & Mr [William Ewart] Gladstone. He & Gladstone spoke about American & Californian trees & felling practices. JDH has also dined at the Colviles', where he bid farewell to Mrs Strachey before she leaves to join her husband [Richard Strachey] in India. Also in attendance: the Grant's, Joachin & the Huxley's. JDH & his wife [Lady Hyacinth Hooker] have been to see the Old Masters [exhibition], they left the baby [Joseph Symonds Hooker] at the Royal Society rooms with the porter's wife, much fuss was made of 'the President's baby'.

JDH writes about the very bad health of [John] Smith, Curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, whose doctors, Paget & Walshe, say he has a heart condition. Attacks of the illness often render Smith completely immobile, he has palpitations & severe pain. JDH goes on to give his own medical opinion that Smith has worsening heart disease but for Smith's state of mind it would be better not to have it officially diagnosed. JDH has not seen much of the British Association for the Advancement of Science [48th meeting, Dublin, Ireland]. However, he has sent Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer[WTTD] [William] Spottiswoode's address & [William Henry] Flower's paper on the Linnaean classification of mammals. JDH did not hear [Thomas Henry] Huxley's address as he spent the day with [Alexander] Moore, the Gardener at Glasnevin; where JDH admired the collection of tree ferns & the conifers. JDH has met Suringar & the man WTTD corresponds with about Sinapis glauca. [Alexander] Dickson, [John Hutton?] Balfour & [James] Britten all refused botanical visitors. JDH will take Flower's place at the Botany & Zoology section. Tickets to lectures at the Royal Dublin Society wer sold out to townspeople before any of the delegates arrived. The geologists' section has been quarrelling & 'set upon [William] Pengelly'. An afternoon given by the Lord Lieutenant, John Spencer-Churchill, at Vice Regal Lodge was ruined by bad weather. [John] Sadler has not turned up. JDH criticises the House of Commons office for printing the [Annual RBG Kew?] Report from an uncorrected copy. JDH has asked his son Charles Paget Hooker to visit his Aunt, & will probably send him to Edinburgh. JDH intends to go next to Killarney.

JDH writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer about his travels in Ireland [with his wife Lady Hyacinth Hooker]. They have travelled from Dublin to Muckross in Killarney & seen the Torc Cascade with Suringar & a geologist, as well as the Gap of Dunloe & the lakes. From Muckross they went to Queenstown, Cork where they have met with [William Edward] Gumbleton & the Bagwells. JDH describes these people & their fine gardens, he particularly mentions the Fuchsias & Escallonias. At Cork JDH also met with Brady, who went to Morocco, [Archibald] Liversidege Professor of Geology at Sydney New South Wales, & the Miss Townsends with their uncle. JDH plans to see more gardens around Cork before returning to Dublin to see Glassnevin & Powerscourt & travelling on to Pendock.

JDH writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer about his time in Paris. He [& his wife Hyacinth Hooker] could not stay at the Hotel de Famille & have been forced to take rooms at an inferior establishment; Hotel l'Amiral. They have been to the Exhibition [Third Paris World's Fair] where JDH admired the Japanese edibles such as Pteris aquilina in syrup, also a collection of bamboos, the Englsih glass & French artificial flowers but he got bored with the amount of porcelain on show. They have also been to Cluny, a prize giving at the Palais d'Industrie & briefly to an overcrowded ball at the 'Ministre of Agriculture & Commerce'. JDH will go to a speech by the exhibition jurors & to see the Prince at the British Embassy. JDH has met with William Munro & together they will go to the Jardin de Plantes to visit Joseph Decaisne. JDH & Hyacinth dine daily with Mr & Mrs Ragnel, Hyacinth's aunt. Due to rain they will not attend the ball at Versailles. JDH approves of the improvements being made in Paris but finds the city very noisy, smelly & poorly designed for pedestrians. The Palais Royal does not have the quality shops it used to, good jewellery especially is now to be found further West. JDH is worrying about his [Royal Society] Address, he asks WTTD to help him by preparing a list of significant scientific developments. In a post script JDH ads that the Duval Bouillons are: 'so full one cannot get near them'.

JDH agrees that he & Sir William Thiselton-Dyer should pay for [John Reader] Jackson's trip to Paris. JDH advises caution in dealing with [Daniel] Oliver, he believes that seclusion has led to Oliver developing 'erroneous views'. Gunther was proposed for a Royal Medal a year earlier than Oliver. The Exhibition [Exposition Universelle, third Paris World's Fair] will close at the end of November but exhibitors can sell off exhibits from the end of October.

JDH writes to Sir WilliamTurner Thiselton-Dyer about John Reader Jackson [Keeper of the RBG Kew museums] attending the Paris Exhibition [Third Paris World's Fair]. JDH would also like to take Jackson to the Jardin des Plantes. JDH has attended a deputation from the Colonies to the Prince [Princes of Wales, later Edvard VII] offering him the colonial collections from the exhibition to establish a colonial museum. These collections will be stored in the South Kensington galleries [Victoria and Alber Museum] temporarily which means that RBG Kew will not get the Douglas fir but they wil get a Xanthorrhoea, a tree fern stem probably of Alsophilia cooperi & some other unspecified things. JDH has seen Brand's[?] collection of woods but was not impressed by the display. JDH visits the exhibition daily& is also often at the Embassy with the Prince, who sympathises with keeping RBG Kew shut [to the public during the mornings] but suggests a compromise. JDH still needs to see the horticulture diaplays at the exhbition. Also, to meet with M. Pierre about publishing Pierre's collections with government assistance, about which Joseph Decaisne is sceptical. The balls or 'fetes' at Versailles & the Ministries have been badly organised, JDH [& his wife Hyacinth Hooker] spend the evenings with the Regnals[?], relations of Hyacinth's & the Symonds family. They have been to the Hippodrome. They will catch the Boulogne train home. JDH is returning the proofs of the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE to Reeve, the publishers. William Munro is leaving for Dieppe having been disappointed with the grasses at the Jardin des Plantes. JDH reports some gossip about John Forbes Watson leaving the India Office.

JDH provides Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer with the address of Edward Delmar Morgan & asks him to send brochures & an Aponogeton to Edward de Regel there. There is a large party with JDH at Tortwort [Court], incl: Froude & daughter, Martin Theodore & wife, Lord & Lady Somers, Lord Aberdeen & daughter, Mr & Mrs York of Pendock, J Shaw Lefevre & his wife who is Lord Ducie's daughter, Alfred Denison brother of the late Speaker, Mrs Stewart or Stuart. When he returns JDH will arrange to send some Dahlias to Lady Ducie. JDH asks Thiselton-Dyer to send him some leaves of Parrottia [Parrotia persica or Persian ironwood]. He notes that Ducie & Somers are both mad about their gardens & trees. JDH adds in a post script that he saw [Brian Harvey Houghton] Hodgson at the train station, he was going to Chippenham & looked very ill with gout. In a further post script JDH adds that he has visited Hodgson & he looked better.