JDH has just returned from Loch Lomond & found 3 letters & enclosures from Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD]. In turn he is sending WTTD 2 India Office drafts & [James] Backhouse's letter complimenting RBG Kew. JDH feels that there is much more to be done at RBG Kew especially regarding the arboretum. JDH assumes that [Sir Richard] Strachey has returned to London from Aviemore. JDH mentions something that he & WTTD wrote about a Mr Talbot. JDH assumes that the Calcutta Botanic Garden is in a bad way given the conditions it exists in under Mudel[?], who JDH calls a 'jackanapes'. JDH has told [John Firminger] Duthie that he must listen to [George Henry Kendrick] Thwaites' opinion on the destination of the rubber plants Duthie takes out & that it will depend on the condition they arrive in. Some or all may be sent straight on to Assam via Calcutta [Kolkata]. JDH will back 'the Dipterocarp application'. He is anxious that WTTD come forward for the Royal Society despite the obstacle of Bentley. [George] Bentham has gone to the [British] Association [for the Advancement of Science] meeting. JDH reports that the weather in Scotland has been 'tolerable' for his & Lady Hyacinth Hooker's tour of the Clyde, Inverary & Loch Lomond & some of his 'old haunts'. JDH met the Miss Coles on the Loch Lomond Steamer. His wife Hyacinth is an excellent traveller, he describes her as 'a mountaineer'.