10* PREFACE. 



of many others in the hands of the late Dr. Walpers, who inserted them 

 in the second and third volumes of his * Annales Botauices Systematicse.' 

 Shortly afterwards (in 1851), being on a visit to this country, Dr. Hance 

 entrusted the whole of his Hongkong herbarium to Dr. Berthold See- 

 mann, who, as naturalist on board H. M. surveying-ship the Herald, 

 had visited Hongkong in December, 1850, and himself made some col- 

 lections there, and was then, on his return to England, about to publish 

 the botanical results of that Expedition. Accordingly, at the close of 

 Dr. Seemann's ' Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald,' we find a 

 " Flora of the Island of Hongkong," published in 1857, and containing 

 an enumeration of 773 phsenogamous plants and ferns, based chiefly 

 upon Dr. Hance' s collections, and, in some Orders, confined to those 

 and to Dr. Seemann's own, but in the generality of cases comprising 

 also Mr. Hinds's and Col. Champion's plants. Since that period, I have 

 received several valuable communications from Dr. Hance, either notes 

 on species already enumerated, or specimens of others since found in 

 the island, as well as many interesting species from Canton, Amoy, and 

 other points of the Chinese coast, illustrative of the general botanical 

 regions of which Hongkong forms a part. On Dr. Seemann's recent 

 departure for the South Sea, he left Dr. Hance' s and his own original 

 specimens which he had examined for his Elora (with the exception of 

 orchids and ferns) at Kew, where he has liberally allowed me access 

 to them for the purpose of identification and comparison. 



The late De. W. A. Haelafd, Government Surgeon at Hongkong, 

 brought to this country in 1857 a very valuable set of Hongkong 

 plants, including many that had escaped the notice of previous col- 

 lectors. He allowed me to select specimens of all that appeared new 

 or interesting, and I took notes of a few others which I then thought 

 w ere very familiarly known species, but of which I have subsequently 

 regretted I had not retained specimens for more exact comparison. 



Mr. Chaeles "Weight, of the United States, so well known for the 

 beauty and excellence of the specimens distributed from his various 

 botanical expeditions, was naturalist on board the TJ. S. ship the Vin- 

 cennes, and other vessels forming the United States North Pacific Ex- 

 ploring Expedition, under the command first of Captain Ringgold and 

 afterwards of Captain John Eodgers. During this cruise Mr. Wright 

 staid at Hongkong from March to September, 1854, and from January 

 to April, 1855, and has proved himself as zealous and active on this as 

 on other occasions, for he brought away specimens of above 500 species, 

 several of them of great interest, and not received from any other 



