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JDH has not replied to Asa Gray's letters earlier as he has been busy with Linnean & Royal Society business & there has been illness in the family, including whooping cough & measles. Mentions his 'presidential Soiree', which was very well attended, including by Charles Darwin. Also mentions selecting new candidates for the Royal Society. Explains his reasons for declining further offers of knighthood, at this point he feels he can only accept an offer of K.C.B. [Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath] as recognition of his Presidency of the Royal Society. Has received Paris Lambertii[sic] & Abies Alba & hopes Gray has got the Thistles. Comments that one Miss Kingsley is very engaging, that his sister Bessy [Elizabeth] is melancholic, that he likes one Mr Eliott, & asks about Gray's duties as a member of the Smithsonian Institution Board. Discusses George Bentham distancing himself from the Linnean Society & its resultant decline. [George] Allman will be the next President of the Linnean Society. JDH describes his busy schedule on Royal Society Council meeting days. Whilst he is away [Sir Richard] Strachey & [Sir Andrew Crombie] Ramsay will take the Chair. Thanks Gray for a postal order & apologises for not thanking Ross for some apples. Mentions Mrs Gray's fall & recovery. Tyndale wants JDH to take Presidency of the British Association at Belfast, his inaugural address will be on insectivorous plants: the effect of Carbonate of Ammonia on Nepenthes, specifically on glands in the pitcher. Promises to send Gray 'the Wedgewood medallion'. Explains that a Miss James referred to a portrait of Linnaeus but it was not by Flaxman who worked very little for Wedgewood.

[Letter in French, transcript available in French and English]. JDH writes that he is sending Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] a corrected copy of the [KEW ANNUAL] REPORT & leaves it to WTTD's discretion when it is ready to send to the printers. JDH & his party travelled to Nimes by rail via the mountains from Clermont Ferrand & JDH was impressed by the basalt landscape, which he describes. The vegetation is not more advanced than in England but the trees coming into leaf were attractive. JDH wonders why there is so much variation in the colour of different species' young leaves but not their mature foliage. In the southern valleys JDH saw olive, wild chestnut & evergreen oak. JDH praises the Jardine de Plantes, Paris, which [Joseph] Decaisne showed them. JDH discusses [Adolphe] Brogniart's views on palaeobotany; his opinion that [William] Williamson's theories are superior to [William] Caruthers' & his belief that there are no Polypodiaceae fossils in the coal beds. The party will next visit [Jules Emile] Planchon in Montpellier then go to Pont du Gard, Arles, Cannes, to see Mr [Gustave-Adolph] Thuret in Antibes & [Daniel] Hanbury in Menton. There is an addenda to the letter, written in English, under date 30 [Apr 1874] in which JDH reiterates the places they have visited & reports that he read about the resignation of G. Russell in GALIGNANI'S MESSENGER & that he himself is still mildly ill with a cough.

JDH reports that the slightly cold weather in Cannes & Montpellier have aggravated his rheumatism. Criticises the maintenance of [Jules Emille] Planchon's garden in Montpellier & attributes this to the fact that they try to grow twice as many species as necessary on a small budget. The aging Professor Charles Martins gave a charming tour of the garden. At Montpellier station met with [Hugh Algernon] Weddell arriving from Cette [Sète], where he had been doing lichen research. Mrs [Frances] Hooker is going to Florence to stay with Miss Galton. JDH is happy 'to miss' the presidency of 'Section D' [at the Florence International Botanical Congress] & supports [John] Tyndall for a vice-presidency. Mentions the Roman ruins at Nimes & a trip from Nimes to Pont du Gard ruin, where he gather 42 species in a single spot. Tomorrow they leave for Antibes where they may see [George James] Allman if he has not left for San Remo. They then go to stay with Mr Hanbury at Mentone [Giardini Botanici Hanbury previously known as Palazzo Orengo], and on to Genoa, Pisa & Florence. JDH reports that [Geroge] Bentham is well but 'put out' to hear that Cambridge Universoty has awarded him the peculiar honour of LL.D. Adds that having met St George Jackson Mivart in Paris & found him to be a willing candidate for secretary of the Linnean Society this information has been met with enthusiasm from Frederick Currie [Currey].

[Letter in French, transcript available in French and English]. JDH writes to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer in order to practice the French he is learning. He writes that he & his party have travelled from Nimes to Arles, where he saw the Roman ruins, & from Arles to Cannes during which journey he admired the countryside & particularly the Pinus pinea groups by the sea. He compares Cannes itself to Torquay but less green. They then stayed with Mr Altmann at the Hotel du Cap in Antibes where they also met with Mr Thuret & Dr Bornet. JDH describes & praises Thuret's garden, which is full of plants from all over the world which thrive despite the extreme seasonal temperatures caused by the Mistral winds. JDH personally prefers the climate & greener vegetation of Madeira & Portugal to that in France. The cold weather in Antibes aggravated JDH's rheumatism, the season there is nearly over. He also met a Colonel Roper in Antibes who was there with his wife for her health. Colonel Roper was very well read in natural history, his wife went every night with a princess to a casino in Monaco at returned by train at midnight. JDH discusses Bornet's work on seaweeds which grow within the tissues of lichen & gives his own opinions, particularly on the 'gonidie'. He also mentions the possibility of lichens & algae with parasitic relationships, or whether it is more a case of their primordial condition. JDH continues the letter in English under the address Pegli, near Genoa. He writes that they will go next to Sestri, Spezzia & Florence & notes that [George] Bentham has had diarrhoea & JDH's own cough lingers.

JDH expects Smith has already told Thiselton-Dyer of his 'insouciance' respecting Nice. Thanks Thiselton-Dyer for correcting his [Kew Annual?] Report, he suspects the mistakes were in the record of garden arrivals as [Daniel] Oliver prepares the herbarium records & [John Reader] Jackson the museum acquisitions. He will consider Thiselton-Dyer's suggestion that [George] Nicholson prepare the garden records, as he considers him very able & thinks Smith should make more use of his talents. Mentions that Decaisne gave him Brouquarts'[?] Setewale [Curcuma zedoaria] of Carruthers. JDH will not reply to Miss Booth's letter yet as he wants to avoid visiting her in Lyons, they are trying to keep her father's botanical books together. Tells Thiselton-Dyer not to spend too long on JDH's [Royal Society Presidential?] address. Proposes that the paper on Nepenthes be a joint effort. Agrees with Thiselton-Dyer view on physiological research. Is anxious to read Sachs[?]. JDH calls Florence 'glorious'. The Horticultural Show & Botanical Congress are 'fiascos'. Filippo Parlatore is ill with whopping cough so JDH was made chair of the first session in his place, it should have been George Bentham. Lists some of the attendants. Mentions Carnel brought his Cynomoria to the congress & [Andrei Sergeyevich] Famintsyn read a paper on Myxogasters. Next JDH, Mrs [Frances] Hooker & Huxley go to Venice, then home via Munich. Allman is in Florence but will return in time for the first meeting of the Linnean Society in June.

JDH thanks Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] for his letter with news of the loss of the ship 'Liberia', on which their friends the Lowes were passengers. Richard Thomas Lowe's death means the Flora of Madeira will never be finished, like so many other systematic works of botany. In Filippo Parlatore's absence from the Botanical Congress, in Florence, JDH was elected to act as President. He describes how he went about organising & chairing the proceedings of the Congress. He mentions the following papers that were given: one on the Colchicaceae of Greece, [Andrei Sergeyevich] Famintsyn[?] on Myxogasters, Caruel on Cynomorium from Sardinia, Schimper on Astrophyllites from the gneiss quarries of Mont Blanc. JDH had to comment on the papers in his poor French which annoyed some attendees. A bust of [Philip Barker] Webb was invested. JDH & the Vice Presidents had an audience with the King of Italy [Victor Emmanuel II], who JDH calls 'repulsive'. JDH is now in Venice & will return home via Paris. [John] Ball & [George] Allman stayed on in Florence, but the latter must return home soon for his election to the Presidency of the Linnean Society. JDH informs WTTD that he is happy to be a President of the British Association [for the Advancement of Science] meeting but will be satisfied if he only presents the joint paper on Nepenthes. JDH & party are well, except for [George] Bentham who has had diarrhoea. JDH briefly had a cough but has recovered. Mr Harvey is also in Venice.

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Has "given the slip" to Nepenthes, but is setting a plant up in an enclosure for special observation.

Has some splendid Sarracenia and will perform any miracle regarding them CD puts him up to.

Charmed with CD’s account of Pinguicula. Would like to try whether Lychnis has the same use of viscid fluid.

Has written for English Utricularia for CD.

Thinks Frank and he have worked out Pinguicula well and they long to attack Utricularia. Tried several plants with sticky glandular hairs; some few absorb ammonia, but the greater number do not. If JDH sends plant or seed of Lychnis CD will examine it to see whether it catches many flies. Asa Gray has written him much about Sarracenia, with a specimen showing the splendid dodge by which ground insects are enticed up and then drowned. Describes how it may be investigated, to see whether it absorbs decayed matter from flies, or ammonia thus generated.

Sends results of his observations on Nepenthes. Would be grateful for any hints for further observations.

It would be interesting to prove that some plants feed on decayed animal matter whilst others like Drosera can digest fresh animal matter. Suggests the method for observing this.

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The appetite of Nepenthes for hard-boiled egg is prodigious.

Suggests experiments to try [with Nepenthes]. Asks JDH to test whether cabbage seeds and peas exposed to the ferment germinate.

Asks what can be the meaning of appendages to tips of leaflets of enclosed Acacia or Mimosa.

Is at fibrin today.

Michael Foster suggests coagulation of protoplasm may be diseased, not digestive, symptom.

F. M. Balfour is at Kew today.