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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 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.