APPENDIX. 431 



Levuka, and would be of eminent service in developing the na- 

 tural resources of the Fiji Islands. 



Fiji Islands, May 1st, 1861. 



III. SYSTEMATIC LIST OF ALL THE FIJIAN 

 PLANTS AT PRESENT KNOWN. 



The Vitian Islands were until 1840 a virgin soil, and still offer a 

 tempting field for botanical explorations. Absolutely nothing was 

 known of their Flora until Messrs. Hinds and Barclay, who accom- 

 panied Sir Edward Belcher in H.M.S. Sulphur, collected a few 

 specimens in the neighbourhood of Rewa, Viti Levu, and Bua 

 Bay in Yanua Levu, afterwards described by Mr. Bentham in the 

 * London Journal of Botany,' vol. ii., and the Botany of H.M.S. 

 Sulphur. About the same time (1840) Viti was visited by the 

 United States Exploring Expedition, Commander Wilkes, and con- 

 siderable collections were made by Messrs. Brackenridge, Rich, and 

 Pickering, furnishing the materials for Professor Asa Gray's cele- 

 brated ' Botany of the United States Exploring Expedition.' In 

 1856, H.M.S. Herald, Captain Denham, R.N., explored different 

 parts of the group, and Mr. Milne, his botanical collector, was 

 enabled to add a good number of species to our knowledge. 

 Another visit was paid to the group by that indefatigable bo- 

 tanist Professor Harvey, of Trinity College, Dublin, productive of 

 many new types. In 1860 I collected about 800 species and made 

 a great many notes of the country explored. Whilst part of the 

 latter, relating to the resources and vegetable productions, were 

 embodied in an official report, addressed to his Grace the Duke of 

 Newcastle, and presented to Parliament by command of her Majesty, 

 a preliminary list of the former was published by me in the ' Bon- 

 plandia,' vol. ix. p. 253 (1861). Since then I have had time to ex- 

 amine the plants more closely and correct a few errors crept in. 

 Other botanists have also been led to study the materials collected 

 by me and publish the result. Prof. A. Gray has carefully collated 

 my plants with those published by him in the ' Botany of the United 

 States Exploring Expedition ' and the ' Proceedings of the American 



