xxm ee BERTHOLD SEEMANN. 
a Flora of the extreme north-west of Arctic America, and for the anthropology of the Esquimaux. 
In her various voyages, the ‘Herald’ visited repeatedly Kamtchatka and the Sandwich or 
Hawaiian Islands; and in 1850 she began her homeward course, touching and remaining for 
some time at Hongkong, Singapore, Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena, and Ascension, reaching 
England in June, 1851. Seemann published a popular account of the voyage, entitled a ‘ Narra- 
tive of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald,’ in 1853, and under the authority of the Admiralty he 
produced ‘The Botany of the Herald,’ containing Floras of Western Eskimo-land, North- 
western Mexico, the Isthmus of Panama, and Hongkong. This important work was published 
in 1852-57 in a thick quarto volume, with 100 plates by Fitch, the analyses for which were 
furnished by Dr. J. Hooker, whose assistance, as well as that of Sir W. J. Hooker, the author 
cordially acknowledges in the preface. 
About this time the degree of Ph.D. was conferred on Seemann by the University of Góttin- 
gen, and the Imperial German * Academia Nature Curiosorum " made him a member under the 
name of * Bonpland." A few years later he was elected Adjunct or Vice-President for life. 
Iu 1853 Seemann started, with his brother, W. E. G. Seemann, the botanical journal 
‘ Bonplandia.’ This was published in Hanover, and carried on for ten years, till the end of 1862. 
In 1857 Seemann went to Canada as official representative of the Linnean Society at the 
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Montreal. 
In 1860 Seemann went to the Viti Islands to inquire into the natural productions and 
capabilities of these islands, under circumstances which are narrated in the introductory pages of 
this volume, and more at length in his popular narrative of the expedition published in 1862, 
under the title ‘Viti; a Government Mission to the Vitian or Fijian Islands? The most important 
scientific result of the expedition is the present work, the last part of which is now published after - 
many unexpected delays. It contains the results not only of Seemann's own explorations, but 
those of all other expeditions to the South Seas, from Captain Cook's first voyage till the present 
time. Itis the first time that the synonymy and characters of these have been properly and 
faithfully worked up, and this work, which must be the foundation of any future Flora of the 
Tropical Pacific Islands, will be a lasting monument to the eminent scientific attainments of its 
lamented author. 
The ‘Journal of Botany, British and Forei gn,’ was commenced in 1863, on the relinquishment 
of the * Bonplandia,’ of which it was in some sort a continuation. 
After his return from Viti the force of circumstances took Seemann more and more away from 
botanical and scientific work. In 1864 he visited Venezuela; leaving Southampton on the 2nd of 
February, he reached Caracas towards the end of the same month, thence proceeded to Porto 
Cabello, Chichirividei and Tocuyo, and returned to Europe vid Curacao and St. Thomas. 
Seemann was elected in 1865 Honorary Secretary to the International Botanical Congress, 
which was held next year in London under the presidency of A. De Candolle; but after devoting 
himself for some months to the duties of his office, he reluctantly left England to explore New 
Segovia and other parts of Nicaragua for the Central American Association, He was absent from 
England from March till August, 1866, when he returned with several new plants, which wera 
considerably increased in number during his second visit in the following year. An account of 
this journey was published in ‘ Dottings on the Roadside in Panama, Nicaragua and Mosquito’ 
(1869), some chapters of which were written by Captain Pim, his fellow traveller. One result of 
