JDH apologises for not writing to Asa Gray sooner, he has been answering enquiries about the future of RBG Kew. He congratulates Gray on receiving a silver presentation vase. JDH mentions the heavy snow. William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] has been appointed Director of RBG Kew & [Daniel] Morris Assistant Director. WTTD & Harriet are wary of moving into the Director's House. John Smith will retire in Mar when he turns 60. JDH discusses his pension. JDH has set up his son 'Willy' [William Henslow Hooker] in a house in Kew. Charles Paget Hooker is at Cirencester & Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker has got a job at silver mine in New South Wales on the Murrumbidgee River. Reginald Hawthorn Hooker is preparing for Cambridge with Mr La Touche. Joseph Symonds Hooker is proving to be a good reader & Richard Symonds Hooker is developing as all babies do. JDH's father in law Reverend William Samuel Symonds' health is uncertain, Mrs Rothry is getting better. JDH is settled at The Camp, he works productively there & in the RBG Kew herbarium & is relieved to be Director no more. JDH discusses his work on the FLORA OF BRITHSH INDIA, specifically Litsaea or 'Tetranthera', Persea & a genus near Eudiandra. He has also been working on George Bentham's flora & proofs of GENERA PLANTARUM. He is still on the councils of the Royal Society & the Royal Geographic Society. Mentions an RGS lecture given by Bryce on commerce & trade, & an upcoming one by Morris. Gives his opinion on teaching geography & declares that teaching any subject is fruitless if people do not wish to learn. He wonders what has happened to the alternative botany once taught in Glasgow & Edinburgh. Discusses [Richard] Owen using [William Ewart] Gladstone & the Bishop of Oxford as mouthpieces support the the mosaic narrative over evolution & Darwinism. JDH also recalls Owen's comments on his essay in FLORA AUSTRALIA. JDH reviews Gray's obituary of Louis Agassiz. JDH is disappointed by De candolle's obituary of Boissier.

JDH has a cold. He writes to thank Asa Gray for the SYNOPTICAL FLORA SUPPLEMENT. JDH is glad Gray is working on Ranunculaceae again & hopes he will 'gallop through Thalamiflorae'. JDH is working on Laurineae, he discusses his classification of Litsaeaceae under a single genera: Lindera. If [George] Bentham [GB] had tried to understand Laurineae the GENERA PLANTARUM would not be complete, it requires the patient analysis JDH is better at. JDH assumed GB did the ones for [Robert] Schomburgk & [Richard] Spruce. The obscure, tropical arborescent Orders are hard work but Gray has his own difficulties with Compositae. JDH is printing Indian Polygonums. JDH comments on the absence of a willow in Gray's MANUAL OF THE BOTANY OF THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES which may already have been published in Anderson's Monograph in De Candolle Prodromus depending on what the correct relative dates of publication are. Also comments on [John Merle] Coulter's Rocky Mountain flora & the definition of an alpine plant. Discusses who should replace [John] Lubbock as President of the Linnean Society, JDH does not want the job himself, he thinks it should be William Thiselton-Dyer but will more likely be [William] Carruthers. D. Jackson's biographical notice of GB is unsatisfactory. JDH wrote to [Mary Louisa Wallon] encouraging her to spend some of the money she inherited from her uncle [GB] supporting the Linnean & Royal Societies. JDH lists some of the works in a botanical library that is being sold, it once belonged to his friend Mr Watson Taylor, an amateur botanical artist. He suggests St. Louis may buy them, JDH is considering a price of about £500 but will consult Wheldon. JDH asks if Sargent is right to call Gray one of the "immortal 8" of the French Academy.

JDH thanks Asa Gray for his letter of 29 Apr [1886]. JDH has finished Laurineae but is dissatisfied with the result, he does not think he improved on the earlier work of [Carl] Meissner. JDH's opinion of Nees von Esenbeck is raised. JDH is working on Euphorbias, of which [Pierre Edmond] Boissieu made too many species, he scoffs at Boissieu's presumption that there could be un-described plants of Heyne[?] in the Vienna & St Petersburg herbaria. JDH has not see O. M. Holmes though they were both at Princess Louise's & Holmes met with [Thomas Henry] Huxley at a public dinner. JDH is working on ICONES [PLANTARUM]. He misses [George] Bentham [GB] & is frustrated that his affairs are not settled. He works in GB's old room in the herbarium. JDH is impressed by Daniel Oliver's knowledge, particularly of Phaenogams. He discusses staff changes at RBG Kew: [Daniel] Morris is installed, [George] Nicholson replaced [John] Smith & [William] Watson is in charge if tropical cultivation as Assistant Curator. Mitford, Secretary of the Board of Works, has inherited his Uncle, Lord Redesdale's, property. He will probably be replaced by one of 'mad Gladstone's secretaries'. JDH is working on new editions of GB's [HANDBOOK OF THE BRITISH FLORA] & the Primer [BOTANY, 1876]. Mentions that specimens arrive from China & are dealt with by [William Botting] Hemsley, material from Africa is usually poor quality. [George] King promises to do the figures for the FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA but systematic botanist rarely live up to promises, except Baker. [William] Carruthers is President of Linnean Society, Jackson Botanical Secretary & [James] Murie Prime Minister. Offers Gray duplicates of Indian specimens, they are from collections by Wallich, Cuming & Lobb. [James Edward Tierney] Aitchison is working on his Turkmenistan & Afghanistan collections. JDH would like word of Mr Ashburnham Newman, now of San Francisco, who is married to his niece: Margaret McGilvray. JDH has received no pension yet.

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