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].