x PREFACE. 
He mastered the language, and soon, by his skill in his 
profession and unselfish efforts to mitigate the effects of disease 
upon the aboriginal race, won a lasting reputation both among 
the native and foreign population. He filled at different times 
various responsible positions, such as those of Physician of the 
Queen's Hospital and of the Insane Asylum. He was an active 
member of the Board of Health and of the Royal Hawaiian 
Agricultural Society, and was a member of the Privy Council of 
king Kamehameha V., besides being his private physician. 
In 1865 and 1866, while on a voyage as Commissioner of 
Immigration for the Hawaiian Government to China and the 
East Indies, he made collections of plants in Hongkong and its 
neighborhood and in Java. A great number of living plants and 
birds were brought by him from the Asiatic countries visited, many 
of which are now more or less distributed, some even naturalized, 
in the Islands. Previous to this he had collected largely in 
certain parts of California. 
Since leaving the Islands in 1871 he had resided in different 
parts of Germany and Switzerland, and was for some years in 
Madeira and Teneriffe, where he also collected extensively. For 
two years or more previous to his death he had been afflicted 
with an excruciating illness, in consequence of which progress 
upon the Flora was much delayed and sometimes altogether 
suspended. It was not more than two months before the end 
that the manuscript was declared complete. 
His remains lie in the burial place overlooking the fertile 
valley of the Rhine on the outskirts of the beautiful town of 
Heidelberg, so endeared to him by the recollections of his student 
days and the associations of several years of residence during 
the later years of his life. 
Washington, D.C., Sept. 1887. W. F. Hiniepranp. 
