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.