Several eminent botanists have already examined the whole or ex- 

 tensive portions of my Collections, and pronounced upon their value. 

 Sir William J. Hooker, in his Official Report, alludes to them as 

 amongst the " admirable collections " with which the Herbarium at 

 Kew has last year been enriched. Professor Asa Gray, of Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts, has carefully collated my specimens with those col- 

 lected by the United States Exploring Expedition, and communicated 

 the results. Dr. Schott, of Vienna, has examined the Aroidece, and 

 described the new ones; Mr. Wendland, the Palms; the Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley, the Fungi; the Rev. Churchill Babington, the Lichens; Mr. 

 Smith, of Kew, the Ferns ; Mr. W. Mitten, the Mosses and Hepaticse ; 

 Professor Meisner, the Laurinece ; and Professor Reichenbach, the 

 Orchids. 



As my official ' Report on the Vegetable Productions and Re- 

 sources of the Vitiau or Fijian Islands/ addressed to His Grace the 

 Duke of Newcastle, as head of the Colonial Office, has been printed 

 and presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her 

 Majesty, May, 1862, I was in hopes that the Government would see 

 fit to assist me in publishing the remaining results obtained by this 

 Expedition. His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, ever ready to ad- 

 vance the interests of science, fully shared these hopes, and made an 

 application to the Treasury to that effect, but was " sorry to inform 

 me that the application had been unsuccessful." 



Thinking that what was worth collecting at such an expense, often 

 under great difficulties, in a tropical climate, and amongst a people 

 only partially reclaimed from cannibalism, would also be worth 

 making known, I have resolved to risk the cost of publishing the 

 work myself; and I confidently trust that my friends will lighten the 

 responsibility I have taken upon myself by either becoming subscribers 

 themselves or recommending the work to such public and private 

 libraries as may be known to them. The name of the Artist, Mr. Fitch, 

 and of the publishers, Messrs. Lovell Reeve and Co., will be a suffi- 

 cient guarantee that the work will be got up in the best style ; to 

 which the author may be allowed to add, that none except truly new 

 plants will be figured in the plates. 



BERTHOLD SEEMANN. 



