vi PREFACE. 



talents and disinterested zeal of the above distinguished authors, 

 could not have been undertaken, had it not been for the libe- 

 rality of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, 

 who, through the representation of the Right Honourable the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, have been pleased to grant a sum 

 of one thousand pounds towards defraying part of the expenses 

 of publication. 



I have myself published separate volumes on the ' Structure 

 and Distribution of Coral Reefs ;' on the ' Volcanic Islands 

 visited during the Voyage of the Beagle ;' and a third volume 

 will soon appear on the ' Geology of South America.' The sixth 

 volume of the ' Geological Transactions ' contains two papers 

 of mine on the Erratic Boulders and Volcanic Phenomena of 

 South America. I intend hereafter to describe, in a set of 

 papers, some of the marine invertebrate animals collected during 

 the voyage. Mr. Bell, I hope, will describe the Crustacea, and 

 Mr. Sowerby the shells. Messrs. Waterhouse, Walker, New- 

 man, and White, have published several able papers on the 

 Insects which were collected, and I trust that many others will 

 hereafter follow. The plants from the southern parts of Ame- 

 rica will be given by Dr. J. Hooker, in his great work on the 

 Botany of the Southern Hemisphere. The Flora of the Gala- 

 pagos Archipelago is the subject of a separate memoir by 

 him, in the ' Linnean Transactions.' The Reverend Professor 

 Henslow has published a list of the plants collected by me at 

 the Keeling Islands ; and the Reverend J. M. Berkeley has de- 

 scribed my cryptogamic plants. 



I shall have the pleasure of acknowledging the great assist- 

 ance which I have received from several other naturalists, in the 

 course of this and my other works ; but I must be here allowed 

 to return my most sincere thanks to the Reverend Professor 

 Henslow, who, when 1 was an under-graduate at Cambridge, 

 was one chief means of giving me a taste for Natural History, 

 who, during my absence, took charge of the collections I sent 

 home, and by his correspondence directed my endeavours, and 

 who, since my return, has constantly rendered me every assist- 

 ance which the kindest friend could offer. 



June. 1845. 



