OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: SEPTEMBER 11, 1866. 145 



Hawaian Islands, which were visited in 1840. The Polypetalse were 

 published in full in the Botany of the Expedition by Gray, who has 

 also published new species of Monopetalse in Vols. IV., V., and VI. of the 

 Proceedings of this Academy. But few of the Apetalae have yet been 

 noticed. The Ferns, by Brackenridge, were published as a separate 

 volume of the Botany of the Expedition ; but nearly the whole of the 

 edition was destroyed by fire. Another partially published volume 

 comprises the Mosses by Sullivant, the Lichens by Tuckerman, and 

 the Algas by the late Professors Bailey and Harvey. 



Nuttall visited the Islands in 1835, from the Northwest Coast, and 

 made a small collection. Most of his specimens are in the Hookerian 

 Herbarium ; a few probably in that of the Philadelphia Academy. He 

 published notes and descriptions of some Hawaian Composites, Lobe- 

 liaeece, and Vaccimece in the Transactions of the American Philosoph- 

 ical Society. 



Jules Remt went to the Islands under the auspices of the Paris 

 Museum, and made a fine collection in the years 1851 - 1855. 



Wm. Hillebrand, a physician resident in Honolulu, has recently 

 sent interesting collections to Kew, among them a new genus of 

 Begoniace.ce, which Prof. Oliver has named after its discoverer. 



W. T. Brigham, with whom I visited the Islands, aided me con- 

 stantly in collecting, and remained five months after my return, obtain- 

 ing several species not in my own collection. 



The Hawaian Islands lie just within the northern tropic, between 

 18° 55' and 22° 20' N., and 154° 50' and 160° 40' W. Their climate is 

 not extreme, being much moderated by the N. E. trade winds, which 

 blow pretty steadily for three fourths of the year. The mean annual 

 temperature at Honolulu is about 79° Fahr. ; that of the summer, or 

 from May to October, about 81°, and that of the remaining half-year, 

 or winter months, about 75° ; the thermometer ranging mostly between 

 60° and 86°. Lahaina, under the lee of the mountain of West Maui, 

 and Waimea, in the same relative position to the mountain of Kauai, 

 are the two hottest places, while on the summits of the highest moun- 

 tains the snow persists through nearly the whole year. The snow 

 descends on the flanks of the high mountains to a level of 6,000 or 

 7,000 feet above the sea, at least in cold winters, but never lies at that 

 elevation long, quickly retreating upwai'd with the return of a warm 

 day. 



VOL. VII. 19 



