EDITORIAL NOTES. 



This volume contains Parts I., II., and III. of the Botanical Series of 

 Reports on the Scientific Results of the Expedition, together with a 

 General Introduction to these Three Parts dealing with the present 

 state of knowledge of various Insular Floras. 



Botanical notes for the guidance of the Naturalists of the Expedition 

 were prepared at the Royal Gardens, Kew, previous to the departure of 

 the Challenger, and were incorporated in the instructions drawn up by 

 the Circumnavigation Committee of the Royal Society. 1 



The botanical collections of the Expedition referred to in this volume 

 were made by Mr H. N. Moseley during the cruise, and despatched direct 

 to the Royal Gardens, Kew, from various ports touched at by the Expe- 

 dition. Preliminary notices of these collections, and notes by Mr Moseley 

 on the general aspects of the vegetation of many of the places visited, were 

 from time to time published in the Journal of the Linnean Society. 2 



The Continental botanical collections made during the voyage being- 

 very fragmentary, it was determined to limit these Reports to a review 

 of the Insular Floras which came within the range of the Expedition, 

 combining for this purpose the materials already in existence at the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, and at the British Museum, with the new facts brought 

 to light by the Challenger collections. 



The task of preparing these Reports dealing with the Insular Floras 

 was, on the recommendation of Sir Joseph D. Hooker, K.C.S.I., C.B., 

 F.R.S., intrusted to Mr William Botting Hemsley, A.L.S., who writes — 



" When asked whether I would undertake to report on the Botany of the Challenger 

 Expedition, the report to be restricted to Insular Floras, I unhesitatingly replied in the 

 affirmative, because I felt assured of the friendly assistance not only of the botanists at 

 Kew and the British Museum, but also of various specialists in cryptogamic botany. In 



1 Xarr. Chall. Exp., vol. i., 1885, p. 27 et seq. 



2 For a list of these publications see Xarr. Chall. Exp., Bibliography, Appendix VI. pp. 1053-1063. 



(bot. chall. exp. — 1885.) b 



