Spiralling of tendrils.

Has worked hard on Drosera.

Is interested in tracing the "nerves" of Dionaea which follow the vascular bundles. Finds he can paralyse half of the leaf by pricking it at a certain point.

Wishes AG to carry out two experiments on D. filiformis.

Has received AG’s Dubuque address [Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 4 (1872): 282–98].

CD’s finding the nervous system of Dionaea is wonderful.

Coiling of tendrils of climbing plants.

Thanks CD for the new book [Expression].

Has received, through AG, a letter on Dionaea [from W. M. Canby] which has greatly interested him. CD asks AG to question his correspondent on whether it catches large or small insects.

Mary Treat will observe Drosera filiformis.

JDH writes to Asa Gray about his work on Pinus, including the nomenclature & synonymy of various species, including P. edulis, P. fremontia, P. llaveana, P. cembroides, P. perryana, P. chihuahuana, P. tuberculata, P. insignis & P. torreyaan. He has begun working on Oaks & finds them even more confusing. JDH has received Gray's letter of 4 June & bag of Torreya seeds. Mentions a Wardian Case of Sikkim Rhododendrons, [part of the letter following this mention is missing]. JDH refers to some RBG Kew staff & mentions that he pays his wife £100 per annum for working 4, 4 hour, days a week. JDH has been elected the new President of the Royal Society over Spottiswoode & the Duke of Devonshire. JDH has reservations about Gray's plans to employ a German Professor, he suggests an American or Swiss man would be better. William Thiselton-Dyer would not take the job as Professor, he has been offered lucrative positions abroad before but is determined to stay in Britain. The following day JDH will go to Cheshire to visit Mr Tollemache, who is an intimate friend of William Gladstone & previously brought Gladstone to visit RBG Kew.

Sends "squib" he has written exposing the folly of some of Louis Agassiz’s ideas. AG cannot "fire off [his] cracker" in U. S. so sends it to amuse CD. If it is sent to Nature, CD must not give AG’s name. [See "Survival of the fittest", Nature 7 (1873): 404].

Astonished by Agassiz’s argument; has sent AG’s memorandum to Nature [see 8786].

Is working on cross- and self-fertilising plants and has temporarily stopped work on Drosera.

JDH thanks Asa Gray for sending him some boxes of roots. He has received useful information regarding North American Pines from George Engelmann, whom he wishes would also study American oaks. Mentions: a case of Sikkim Rhododendrons for H. Hunnewell, death of John Torrey, sending Bolander subtropical plants including hardier palms. Some boxes from Gray arrived smashed, some things were lost possibly including the Pinguicula & Chaptalia. JDH owes Charles Sprague Sargent a letter. Ashes are hopeless, the arboretum has been hard work the past winter. JDH will go to France with Thomas Henry Huxley [THH] who has been recommended a holiday for his health. George Bentham is working on Mimosas for Martius' Flora. William Thiselton-Dyer is to withdraw from the Horticultural Society & give a series of lectures on botany at South Kensington for the National School teachers. JDH explains what form the lectures will take, they are modelled after THH's zoology lectures. JDH has been unwell but is recovered & has resumed work on the Vaccineae for GENERA PLANTARUM. Welwitsch affair not yet settled. Owen's wife has died. The Royal Commission will recommend that RBG Kew become the national herbarium with a separate Paleontological one at the British Museum [of Natural History].

JDH clarifies that he is not the source of a request for Asa Gray to review his publication GENERA PLANTARUM. Especially as he is under the impression Gray would have nothing complimentary to say about his work on the order Rubiaceae, despite the effort JDH has put into & his belief that he has corrected more mistakes than he has made. He notes that [Sir William Turner] Thiselton-Dyer corrected the work before it went to press. JDH has just returned from a tour of the left bank of the Rhine, Eifel country [volcanic region of Germany], with his wife [Frances Hooker nee Henslow], [John] Lubbock & the Grant-Duffs. They also saw Luxembourg & Treves [Trier]. JDH has asked the publisher, Longman, to send Gray a copy of Decaisne & Le Maout [A GENERAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY DESCRIPTIVE AND ANALYTICAL]. JDH is currently working on the FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA with Thiselton-Dyer but they are hampered by shortcomings in [Carl Friedrich Philipp von] Martius' work & the illness of [Michael Packenham] Edgeworth & [Thomas] Thomson. [George] Bentham is currently working on Mimosaceae for Martius' work. A young man who works for Micheli, of Geneva, is at RBG Kew working on Onograceae & Rubiaceae. Bibb has sent RBG Kew a collection of Illinois plants. JDH hopes to go on holiday to the Auvergne with [Thomas Henry] Huxley. JDH also has much to do reforming business procedures at the Royal Society & arranging the Society's move to new apartments.

JDH informs Asa Gray that he has returned from a trip to the Auvergne, Cantal, Mont Dore & Ardeche country taken with [Thomas Henry] Huxley, who is now at Baden Baden, Switzerland. Mentions professor Cresson[?] is working under Sir W. Thomson & has sent JDH Aster seeds. [Daniel] Oliver is in Jersey. [George] Bentham is working on Mimosaceae for FLORA BRAZILIENSIS. JDH shook off a minor attack of bronchitis whilst on tour in the Eifel with [John] Lubbock & [Mountstuart Elphinstone] Grant-Duff. Thanks Gray for his congratulations on JDH gaining the Presidency of the Royal Society though admits he feels 'oppressed' with the prospects. Mentions Gray getting [William Starling] Sullivant's collection of mosses, RBG Kew has received Hunt's mosses as a gift. JDH expresses low opinion of [William] Carruthers & his conduct in answer to a bill in chancery. Reports on the current whereabouts of his family: Frances, Brian & Reginald at Eastbourne, William with JDH at Kew & Harriet in Gloucestershire. JDH describes & highly compliments a botany course designed by Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer to be run at the school in South Kensington. Thanks Gray for putting a notice of [his wife France Hooker's English translation of] Decaisne & Le Maout's work [TRAITÉ GÉNÉRAL DE BOTANIQUE DESCRIPTIVE ET ANALYTIQUE] in Silliman's Journal [AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE]. JDH cannot recall where he got notice of Sarracenia rubra, alias purpurea. [John Gilbert] Baker has sent all the notes of [Auguste Boniface] Ghiesbreght. JDH has sent Gray Ferns by 'young Ross'. JDH intends to make a cold fernery & asks Gray for roots. Comments on the release of further 'Survey Botanical Reports' & Sullivant's supplements. Notes that the South Kensington Museum is to be put under the British Museum trustees, a symptom of Gladstone's 'mad' government, under which he expects RBG Kew has had 'a lucky escape'.

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JDH thanks Asa Gray for sending Elliottia & asks if anyone has fruit of it. He is unsure where to place it in relation to other genera. He is sure Cyrilla is near Ilex & Olacineae[?]. JDH has received the Aquilegia[?] roots & copy of BOTANICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. Mentions the visit of Mr & Mrs Sargent &, quoting [Charles] Dickens, describes the lady as "plump and conformable". Asks where Gray saw Rodgersia podophylla advertised. Mentions the reputations of [John Louis Rodolphe] Aggassiz & Humboldt. Calls the idea of trying to disprove [Charles] Darwin's theory before Congress "humiliating". Mentions some excellent apples. [The letter is unsigned and possibly imcomplete.]

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.

Encloses letter and sketch from O. N. Rood on pointed ears.

Reports observations on Sarracenia variolaris. A correspondent finds that the fluid in the pitchers is anaesthetic and that a sweet trail runs down the plant, nearly to the ground, to lure up ants.

Encloses two articles on insectivorous plants [Nation 18 (1874): 216–17, 232–4].

CD is deeply pleased by AG’s article on him in Nature [10 (1874): 79–81].

Is preparing book on "Drosera and Co." for the printers. Reports observations on digestion in Drosera and Pinguicula.

Profoundly grateful for AG’s article in Nature; he is especially pleased by what AG says about teleology.