iv PREFACE. 
duced so many general remarks and new (non-Vitian) species into the body of this * Flora,’ 
want of space prevents me from carrying out the intention in this form, but I hope to be 
able to publish it as a separate book, which might become the groundwork for the as 
yet unwritten botanical geography of the Polynesian Islands. 
The first set of specimens collected by me were deposited at the Royal Herbarium, Kew, 
and from these the plates accompanying this work have chiefly been taken, eked out by 
drawings made by Mrs. Smythe and Miss Pritchard, as well as the public ones existing at 
the British Museum. All the duplicate specimens, after being, by the late Sir William 
Hookers kind permission, arranged: and preliminarily named at the Royal Herbarium, 
were sold to cover part of the expenses incurred in collecting them. 
The arrangement followed in this * Flora’ is, with some modifications, that adopted by 
Bentbam and J. D. Hooker in their * Genera Plantarum,’ as far as that valuable work has 
been published. 
As the publication of this work extended over several years, I have thought it desirable 
to date each sheet of eight pages of letterpress, so that there may be no doubt about the 
rights of priority. 
* In the spelling of the Vitian geographical plant and other native names, I have adopted 
the orthography sanctioned in Hazlewood's Feejeean and English Dictionary (Viwa, Fiji, 
1850), and wherever anything at variance with it may be discovered, it must be regarded 
as a mistake. "The name of the group should be written Viti, and that of its inhabitants 
Vitians, which is in strict accordance with their own pronunciation ; all other forms, as 
Feejee, Feedgee, etc., which have found their way into European languages, should be 
gradually suppressed ; they having been learnt, in the first instance, from Polynesians, who, 
like the Tongans, -have no V in their language, and naturally take the sound nearest to it. 
BERTHOLD SEEMANN. 
Lonpon, 
October 30, 1869. 
