CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



Introduction 



In the spring of 1905 I received the appointment of botanist 

 of the scientific expedition sent to the Galapagos Islands by 

 the California Academy of Sciences. In preparing for this 

 expedition the California Academy purchased the U. S. 

 Ship "Ernest," a two masted schooner of eighty-seven tons 

 burden, and after refitting, rechristened her the "Academy." 

 Our party consisted of eleven members, as follows: R. H. 

 Beck, chief; F. X. Williams, entomologist; W. H. Ochsner, 

 geologist and conchologist ; J. R. Slevin, herpetologist ; J. S. 

 Hunter and E. W. Gifford, ornithologists; E. S. King, 

 assistant herpetologist; Frederick T. Nelson, mate; J. J. 

 Parker, navigator; James W. White, cook; and myself, 

 botanist. All of the scientific members of the expedition 

 shipped as seamen, so that the expedition was made up mostly 

 of sailor-scientists. 



The expedition left San Francisco on the morning of June 

 28, 1905, and arrived at Hood Island, the most southern 

 member of the Galapagos group, on September 24, nearly 

 three months having been consumed on the trip, during which 

 short stops were made at Ensenada, Lower California, and 

 on San Martin, San Benito, San Geronimo, Cerros, Natividad, 

 San Benedicto, Socorro, and Clipperton islands, Mexico, and 

 Cocos Island, Costa Rica, on the most of which small collec- 

 tions of plants were made. The expedition left the Galapagos 

 Islands on the 25th of the following September, so that a year 

 and one day was spent in the archipelago, during which time 

 all of the islands were visited at least once, and the larger 

 and more important ones two or more times at different 

 seasons of the year. 



Up to the present time our knowledge of the flora of the 

 V Galapagos Islands has been due mainly to the collections of 

 Darwin, Andersson, Baur, and Snodgrass and Heller, and to 

 the writings of Hooker, Andersson, and Robinson.^ 



^ For a table of the botanical collections made on the Galapagos Islands, see Robin- 

 son, Flora of the Galapagos Islands, Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences, v. 38, no. 4, pp. 221-223. 



