VI 
PREFACE. 
of connecting themselves with me in the present undertaking, and whose labours will confer 
a lasting value upon it, however small the merit that may be ultimately assigned to the parts 
worked up by myself. The writings of Nees von Esenbeck, Bentham, Griscbach, Klotzsch, 
Stcetz, Sclmltz Bipontinus, Churchill Babington, Bcichcnbach fil, Wilson, J. Smith, Harvey, 
Mitten, and Miers, arc so deservedly esteemed, that nothing further will be required to bear 
out the justness of this remark, and it only remains for me to express my sincere thanks for 
the generous and highly welcome assistance they have afforded me. finally I have to re- 
cord my sense of gratitude to Mr. W. Pitch, the talented artist who supplied the drawings 
to most of the plates, and lithographed them in the spirited manner so peculiarly his own. 
With the exception of the collections formed in Ecuador, Peru, Kamtchatka, Singapore, 
and the Island of Aor, Sumatra, the Sandwich Islands, at the Cape of Good Hope, St. 
Helena, and Ascension, all the plants gathered have been enumerated ; and had the limits 
originally assigned to this Work not already been considerably exceeded, or had the funds 
placed at my disposal permitted a further extension of these pages, I should have preferred 
publishing at this place what now must find its way to the public eye through the channels 
of scientific periodicals. 
In concluding this Preface, and at the same time terminating the editorship of the 
three Works (the Narrative, the Zoology, and the Botany), the pubUcation of w^hich, on the 
rcconmiendation of Sir W. J. Hooker, was entrusted to me by the Lords Commissioners of 
the Admiralty, my thoughts linger with fondness on the fine voyage, the fruits of which are 
now before the public; and on the many happy hours spent on board H.M.S. Herald: and, 
when I search for the cause that has made the voyage so productive, it is to be found in 
the peculiar talent Captain Henry Kellett had for turning every circumstance to account, 
for by his own example he stimulated the officers and men under his command to that 
energetic action which has borne such valuable fruit, and has led to results which render 
the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald, under his command, an event as memorable in the annals of 
Science as in those of Navigation. 
Berthold Seemann. 
Londm, October 10, 1857. 
