Royal Gardens Kew
April 24/[18]74
My dear [Asa] Gray
I am awfully in your debt with letters -- but what with the Linnean, Royal, & family affairs, I have been worked to tension point since Xmas. Now I have had a bad cough & sort of spasms in the throat for 3 weeks *1 turns out to be whooping cough!: & my wife, who is also much worn -- goes with me to the Riviera & Florence tomorrow Bentham accompanying us. We go by Nimes & Arles & shall be away for a month: We were on the eve of starting

to Paris to spend Easter -- when Harriette & the 2 youngest took whooping cough at Hastings, & Brian the measles at school -- which knocked that arrangement up. Just now we are selecting the 15 candidates for R[oyal] S[ociety] out of a list of 52 of whom upward of 30 would be real acquisitions to the Society. Last night was my Presidential Soiree -- a tremendous affair. I suppose the fullest known for many years *2 P.S. Twice as many as ever known -- but very fatiguing for me -- how I did fig[?] the President of the U[nited] States! -- Then too I have been worried with more

offers of Knighthood which I have staved off -- L[or]d Cameron most handsomely offered me K.C.M.G. *3 in consideration of my services to the Colonies, saying that it had been too long omitted, & that he wished it to be the final act of his official career & so forth -- I declined on several grounds, but chiefly because it I was recommended for it 5 years ago, when the Gladstonian Gov[ernmen]t would not give it me, though there were several vacancies (it is limited to 60) -- & if I took it now, it would be regarded as given to P[resident of the]. R[oyal.] S[ociety]. & not to JDH. for Colonial services: & I felt sure (as I found afterwards

was the case) that the R[oyal] S[ociety] would not have approved of my taking any--thing less than the Bath which had been given to both my predecessors in the chair after their accession thereto with far less service claims than I have have. Of course my impression -- that there is no chance prospect of their offering me so limited an honor[sic] as K.C.B. *4 -- & so I am safe from Knighthood for some time to come. On the other hand if offered I must take it -- & as if it it is a case of must, the later the better for me. As pointing to my Colonial services I should have preferred K.C.M.G. which would link Kew to the Colonies emphatically. & were I unsaddled with R.S. I should

I think have accepted: as it is "noblesse oblige" -- to refuse.
The Paris Lambertii[sic] & Abies Alba arrived in capital condition.
You have received the Thistles I hope ere this -- please do not make the loan publicly known.
I am so glad that you like Miss Kingsley. There is something very engaging about her to such gynaeophobists [gynophobists] as we seem to be! My poor sister Bessy is I fear falling into a condition of melancholia. I saw Eliott several times -- had him to dinner at our club, & invited him twice to

Kew -- he is a very very nice fellow.
What have you to do as a member of Smithsonian Board? What duties does it entail?
We have upheld Bentham & get a splendid Round robin assoilzing *5 him, signed & presented by all the best men in the Society.
[George] Allman will be our new President [of the Linnean Society]. It is most unfortunate & indeed wrong, the way poor B[entham]. throws off the Linnean So[ciet]y & all its affairs in [1 word crossed out, illeg.] a huff -- he will not come near it nor help us out of the

great difficulties we are still in. He was emphatically "the Society". Everything is adrift now he is gone & the feebleness of the Secretaries V[ice]. P[resident]'s. & Council comes out strongly & sadly. I cannot do much with the R[oyal] S[ociety] meeting on same Council--days & same meeting evenings -- E.G. to day I have to be at L[innean] S[ociety] at 1. to arrange business with Officers for Council at 3. We shall sit till 6 or 6 1/2, then run to Athenaeum (I ought to go to R.S. Club) for a snatch dinner, back to chair at 8 1/4 & sit till 10 -- -- leave at 10 1/2 -- 11 & home at mid night:
[Sir Richard] Strachey & [Sir Andrew Crombie] Ramsay will take the Chair whilst I am away.

Many thanks for P.O. order -- for £12.0.0. which comes in very very handy at this moment.
I am awfully sorry about not thanking young Ross for the apples.
I am very sorry to hear about Mrs Gray's fall, but am glad to find by Miss James['] letter that she is right again. Does she ride on horse--back?
The Nation comes quite apropos. -- Tyndale wishes me to take Pres Presidency of D at Br[itish]. Ass[ociatio]n. at Belfast in August, & I was going to make Nepenthes my inaugural address. I have been working as to the effect of Carb[onate] of Ammonia on the glands in the pitcher, & your paper will

be an enormous help in time of need. Only think of Darwin coming to the Soireé last night! & looking remarkably well too. I felt very proud of it.
I will send the Wedgwood medallion at once to you. The Linnaeus portrait referred to by Miss James is not by Flaxman who never saw L[innaeus]. & indeed did very little indeed for Wedgwood who would not pay more than a journeyman[']s wage to an artist. He was an old hoax[?].
E[ver] y[our] aff[ectionate] J.D. Hooker [signature]