JDH writes to his daughter, Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer, congratulating her on the promotion of her husband, William Turner Thiselton-Dyer, to the post of Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. JDH considers the promotion well deserved & hopes it will be advantageous to Harriet's family, though there will although there will also be 'bitter' aspects. JDH thinks that Harriet will regret leaving her current, pretty home for the Director's house, but reassures her that it is very suitable, especially for a Government house. He is very pleased that Thiselton-Dyer will have his own Clerk of the Works. JDH adds that he will bring his letter for Lord Iddesleigh [Stafford Northcote].

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JDH informs Asa Gray what it cost to send a copy of GENERA [PLANTARUM] to Bessey [Herbarium], Nebraska. He would welcome more orders to cover the costs of reprinting. Affairs of [George] Bentham [GB] are not yet settled, 'Miss W.' should deal with her Uncle's 'intentions' incl. debts to Societies. JDH will miss GB & his help with ICONES [PLANTARUM]. He mentions a caster belonging to Sir Samuel [Bentham]. JDH cannot travel with Gray but he may be able to visit him in Boston after retiring. JDH is always too busy to get away, [William Thiselton] Dyer does a great deal but cannot take over all Hooker's work & has fallen behind with the 1883 report. Synonyms make nomenclature for the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE increasingly hard. Mentions the ongoing 'McGilvray affair' & the deterioration of his sister Maria McGilvray. [Henry Ashburton] Newman & Margaret [Greene Newman nee McGilvray] have gone to California to start an agricultural school, Bessy & Tom [F. McGilvray] may go too, Tom is currently in Canada. JDH's sister Bessy [Elizabeth Evans Lombe nee Hooker] is still ill & her husband [Thomas Robert Evans] Lombe worries for her. Willy [William Henslow Hooker] has failed to pass for surgeon. Symonds is at 'The Camp' [in Sunningdale]. JDH's wife [Hyacinth Hooker] named their new baby Richard, JDH thinks the child has inherited his long head & compares him to a Chinook [Chenook] Indian. Joey [Joseph Symonds Hooker] follows the baby around like a puppy. Mentions [Everard Ferdinand] Im Thurn ascending Roraima, [Sir Henry Hamilton] Johnston's Kilimanjaro collections, & a portrait of Gray. Discusses his work on Indian Polygona, referring to Meissner's work, Amblygonon & Persicaria. GB has left JDH the copyright of his BRITISH FLORA, JDH has concerns about producing a new edition. Gray may meet Morris at New Orleans. Reports that his uncle Dawson Turner, a charitable eccentric, has died of Erysipilas. His Aunt Ellen of Chester is the only one left from that branch of the family.

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[This letter is incomplete and bears no signature, but is written in the hand of Joseph Dalton Hooker.] JDH has received a letter from Asa Gray about his travels with his wife [Jane Loring Gray]. He hopes California will be good for the Gray's health, he & his wife Hyacinth Hooker hope to visit the Gray's in America in the autumn. Hyacinth is recovering well from childbirth & the baby [Richard Symonds Hooker] is healthy apart from the after effects of vaccination. Gray's account of Mexico & Cypresses made JDH jealous. JDH discusses arrangements he is making over the estate of the deceased George Bentham, including personal possessions such as the correspondence of Jeremy & Sir Samuel Bentham, some unopened. JDH is working on THE FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA part twelve covering Anacardiaceae. He has completed Aristolochiaceae & is now doing the difficult genus of Piperaceae, in which many of Miquel & De Candolle's species must be assigned as 'unknowable'. He notes that Polygonum was a hard task & that P. virginianum grows in the Himalayas. William Thiselton-Dyer is managing the garden work so JDH deals with the arboretum as well as the scientific work. Nobody has been appointed to the Glasgow Chair [of Botany]. He explains some controversy over the fact McNab was initially appointed by Government before Balfour had even resigned, at the expense of other candidates such as Bower & Ward. JDH thinks the botnaical results of the Kilimanjaro Expedition are disappointing he hopes for better from Everard im Thurn's ascent of Roraima. JDH reports that his sister Maria McGIlvray has recovered from illness. MR Newman has opened a farming school in San Francisco.

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JDH has received Asa Gray's letter from St Louis & is glad to hear he & his wife are healthier than in Mexico. JDH suggests he should go to Vancouver with the Grays. JDH reports on how things are at 'The Camp' [in Sunningdale]: the Symmonds are staying there, the Hawthorn & birch foliage is beautiful but the oak, ash & chestnut trees are coming into leaf late due to a cold spring. JDH is currently living at Kew & working on the Indian Flora, THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE & various committees. JDH refused the Presidency of the Royal Geographical Society & the Marquis of Lorne now has the post. Discusses management of the Linnean Society incl. lack of a Botanical Officer: [John] Lubbock is doing a bad job as President, [William] Thiselton-Dyer would be the best man for the job but does not want it, nor does JDH. Discusses Huxley's health & retirement. Frankland also to retire. Tells Gray what his children are doing: Charles Paget Hooker has given up his Cottishall [medical] practice & is engaged to a niece of [Thomas Robert Evans] Lombe's, Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker [BHHH] is done at the copper mine, Harriet Thiselton-Dyer nee Hooker's health is improved, according to [Antoine Francis] Marmontel Grace Ellen Hooker excels in music at the Conservatorie de Paris, Reginald Hawthorn Hooker is doing a Bachelor of Sciences, Joseph Symonds Hooker & Richard Symonds Hooker progress. JDH has finished Indian Polygona & is working on Myristica. Discusses a letter from [Mountstuart Elphinstone] Grant Duff re. a supposed love affair between BHHH & one of the Klustines. Mentions that Bentham's sister was engaged to a Klustine & [George] Bentham [GB] himself jilted a Mademoiselle Dax for Laura Carr who in turn married a Mr Rolfe instead & later Lord Cranworth. JDH has inherited GB's autobiography & mass of Bentham family correspondence, he has been employing Miss Wallich to sort it but is not impressed with her. JDH mentions the health of his sisters: [Elizabeth] Lombe & Maria [McGilvray].

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JDH informs Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer that he has written to [John] Lubbock to arrange a meeting. He thinks WTTD can make a better plan for 'the offices' than John Lessels [of The Office of Works]. Smith has had a mild heart attack but expects to be back at work at RBG Kew in a day. JDH praises the rock garden. JDH is digesting [James Edward Tierney] Aitchison's letter, JDH wrote to Aitchison about his rose a moth previously. JDH will return to RBG Kew on Monday, 27 July 1885.

JDH mentions Mimuli, Pringle's plants, Certes, & Gay's plants, as exchanged with Asa Gray. John Ball is in Italy, he is looking old. Wright is dead as so many of their friends now are. Sends birthday wishes to Gray's wife Jane. JDH sympathises with Gray over the tedium of revising works, he is bored with revisions for GENERA PLANTARUM. He wishes Gray had had more time to spend on FLORA BOREALI AMERICANA. Mentions the price of the HMS 'Challenger' works & the part written by William Botting Hemsley. Discusses organisation of the RBG Kew herbarium, especially intercalation of accessions & mounting of specimens. [Jules Emile] Planchon, [Henri Ernest] Baillon, [Heinrich Gustav Adolf] Engler & Ludwig Adolph Timotheus Radlkolfe have all been at RBG, Kew together. Mentions the marriage of his son Charles Paget Hooker, at Morton Hall, the home of a Mr Berneys. Mention they both like to fish so have gone to Scotland for a fishing honeymoon. Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker has gone to Australia to visit Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland & New Zealand. Paying for his sons has put JDH in debt. He is working on Laurineae [Lauraceae] for the FLORA BRITISH INDIA & thinks they need to be arranged differently: there are two genera in Beilschmideliae [Beilschmiedia] & Cyanodaphne is not a good genus. He has completed work on the Cinnamomums. Reginald Hawthorn Hooker has done well in his 'Bachelores Sciences' degree at the Sorbonne & will be tutored by La Touche in preparation for matriculation at the University of London. Grace Ellen Hooker prefers to return to Paris than become a governess. Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer née Hooker is feeling better & Joseph Symonds Hooker & Richards Symonds Hooke are well. Mentions the illness of a Mrs Rothey[?]. Has a copy of Sustermans' 'Head of Galileo' for sale, painted by Miss Horner's protégée.