Thanks HdS for pebbles of Roman bricks. When he goes over MS [Earthworms] again, he will compare smoother ones with those having undergone attrition in gizzards of worms.

Has received book [La question du lac] sent by HdS.

Also sends photograph taken by Leonard Darwin of CD.

Requests photograph of HdS to add to his collection.

Reports the observations of Thomas Bridges on the Fuegian natives. Discusses especially the languages of the area.

Describes light-stimulated movement in fronds of the fern Asplenium.

FM’s view on meaning of two-coloured stamens in many flowers; CD has been looking through his old notes on dimorphism for supporting evidence. Intends to send extract of FM’s letter to Nature or to Linnean Society.

Thanks for BJS’s account of the Fuegians. CD would have predicted that "not all the missionaries in the world could have done what has been done".

Will proof-read his preface to Weismann’s Studien.

Wants plants with two sets of anthers of different colours. Fritz Müller letter [13041a] has made him wish to renew experiments and observations carried out 20 years ago.

Comments on HMW’s discovery concerning growth of hair on human ears. Asks permission to publish fact.

Thanks JVC for corrections of Movement in plants. Sends a clarifying sentence.

Earthworms nearly done – "a small book of little moment".

Reports his health is better than it was, "but I have little strength & feel very old".

Suggests transplanting plant ovaries to test Pangenesis.

None of the cats released in experiment found its way back.

Discusses difficulties involved in plant experiment designed to test Pangenesis.

Is glad CD finds his observations on hair growth on ears new and interesting.

Mentions instances in which young birds possess abilities lacking in the adult.

Has received WBT’s fine work [Edward Blyth, The natural history of the cranes, enlarged and reprinted by WBT (1881)].

Thanks EBT for gift of Anthropology [1881].

Encourages HMW’s study of growth of hair on ears. Recommends he publish findings in Nature.

Comments on facts about goatsucker and dorkings.

Cannot write so is using Lily as secretary. Proud to be member of Geological Society. Sends observations of rhododendron leaves. Could not find piece of ploughed land. Has proved Josiah Wedgwood III’s death in North Eastern Railway Company. Taking care because head hurts.

JDH writes that he is sending Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] the list of herbarium visitors for the RBG Kew annual report, he was not sure whether to include [George] Bentham's name. He notes that the list shows a 'wonderful amount of botanical query & activity'. JDH is now preparing the list of additions to the herbarium, including the extensive list of [Georg Wilhelm Heinrich] Schimper & General William Munro's donated herbaria. JDH discusses the benefits of WTTD going to Court, both for him personally & for the office of Assistant Director of RBG Kew. JDH mentions that he likes the hotel Romain, where he is staying in Paris. He & his party plan to dine at Lavalier's & Capones[?] in Paris before travelling south.

JDH is sending Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] the prepared list of donations to the RBG Kew herbarium, for the annual Kew Report, which will need revising by WTTD & [Daniel] Oliver. They may also wish to edit Hooker's eulogy to [General William] Munro. JDH cannot work up the list of Kew's publications without references so the Report will be delayed beyond the end of Mar this year. JDH & [Asa] Gray have visited [Joseph] Decaisne who is convinced that a student of his can define the characters of the natural orders based on hairs[?], & Decaisne is classifying species of Clematis according to the bristles on the stem & testa, which Baillon[?] will undoubtedly debunk. They visited the Jardin des plantes where JDH observed about 18 immature species of Madagascar palms. Also met: [Marie Maxim] Cornu, [Philippe Édouard Léon] van Tieghem, [Pierre Étienne Simon] Duchartre & [Gaspard Adolphe] Chatin. They have dined at Lavalier's & been to St Denis. Next they go to Chambery, Turin, Genoa, Pise [Pisa], Rome & Naples.

JDH reports that he has arrived in Rome. En route the party stopped in Paris & dined with Lavalie[?] & Copen[?], the latter may leave his herbarium to RBG Kew. They then travelled through Chambery & Turin, where they saw the Champollion Collection of Egyptian Antiquities but JDH forgot to call on Giovanni Arcangeli who is a professor there. JDH admired the view of the Alps towards Monte Viso from an 'Alpine club' house at Turin. After Turin they went to Genoa & tried unsuccessfully to call on the Marquis Giacomo Doria. They also saw the Doria Natural History Museum with a splendid collection of animals from the Malay Islands & called on Federico Delpino. JDH revisited the palaces with the Van Dyke paintings he saw in 1874. He calls the Genoa botanic garden 'small & miserable'. From Genoa they took the train to Pisa where they met up with Betsy White as was. JDH describes the Duomo they visited in Pisa. He also describes the scenery en route from Pisa to Rome. They will next go to Castellammare & stay at the Hotel Quisisana in Naples before returning to Rome. They have briefly seen Miss May Symonds & her brother. JDH notes how sparsely populated, though cultivated, the plains of Italy are. He has seen a few wild flowers: anemones & violets. Curiously the bark of almost all the trees south of the Alps is very white: Planes, Poplars, Mulberries & Elms.

JDH writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer from Castellammare, where he & Lady Hooker have just arrived after spending some time in Rome & Naples. At Naples he visited [Anton] Dohrn's aquarium. He describes some animals of particular interest he saw there: Crinoids, Sepia [cuttlefish], Octopus & Loligo [squid]. He also mentions seeing fish, Ascidia, Corals, Madrepores, Melobesias, Diptera, Beroe, Crustacea, Meduseus & Ulva. In the Naples museum JDH admired the statuary especially a head of Homer & a Venus after Milo. He found the collection of paintings inferior to those at the Vatican & preferred the murals & artefacts from Pompeii, especially: a pane of glass, a surgeon's instrument, a glass plate & a blue glass flagon. JDH has visited Pompeii & tried to understand exactly how it was preserved by the volcanic eruption, he is puzzled why there are not more charcoal remains of the wooden upper stories of buildings & speculates that the town was only partially buried & the exposed material later carried away. Castellammare is where Pliny the elder died during the eruption. JDH is keen to see Herculaneum & understand how its artefacts were not all destroyed by the lava. He also wanted to see Professor Luigi Palmieri at the observatory on Vesuvius but Palmieri is in Rome. JDH intends to ascend Vesuvius the next day. JDH visited the Naples botanical garden but did not see Vincenzo de Cesati or Giuseppe Antonio Pasquale. JDH calls the garden 'wretched' but he did learn something there about Mediterranean Pini. JDH will next go to Amalfi, Salerno & Paestum but not to Capri or Monte St Angelo because of the poor weather. Odoardo Beccari was in Rome appealing against the removal of a herbarium in Florence. JDH comments on the news of Mrs Meade's death & on the poor botanical knowledge of Sir John Lubbock. JDH has asked [John] Smith to give Dyer a list of all RBG Kew garden staff. JDH comments briefly on vegetation in the area, including sour oranges.