4 PHYTOGRAPHY OF THE 
plants of the Polynesian groups, should be extended, not only to the 
vegetation of numerous Pacific islands almost totally unexplored, but 
also to the plants of many inland recesses, to which heathen barbarism 
formerly gave no access, although the littoral skirts of these interior 
regions, on numerous islands, were brought long since under the be- 
nign influence of Christendom. 
Since almost the middle of the last century, naval discoveries have 
rendered the world gradually acquainted with the almost endless num-- 
ber of isles—many almost of a paradisaic nature—dispersed through 
the Pacific ocean; but it yet remains a startling fact, that of their 
vegetation far less has become elucidated than of the flora of many 
other wide spaces of the globe, in regions discovered, occupied, or 
colonised since a much more recent date. 
Vicinity and commerce necessarily must bring most of the Pacific 
islands prominently in contact with the Australian colonies, and, as a 
sequence, these beautiful groups will be connected also with us most 
easily for scientific communion. 
Thus, ever since the untimely death of his friend Berthold Seemann, 
in the latter part of 1871, the writer has ventured to nourish a hope 
that a work on the whole vegetation of Polynesia might most readily 
be promoted from a centre of phytographic research, such as, in 
Australia, he endeavoured to form. 
If, then, the many educated inhabitants located in the various 
groups, as well as scientifically inclined travellers, would aid in secur- 
ing material of any kind for extended researches in the direction in- 
dicated, new sources of delight would arise to the writer, by affording 
not merely special information to the Senders, but also by obtaining 
gradually, the material for an universal work. 
Moreover, the vegetation of the South-Sea islands stands in mani- 
fold bearings to that of Australia; so much so, that even the elucida- 
tion of the plants of the Australian continent, which has engaged ex- 
tensively the writer’s attention during more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury, would receive much collateral support from a closer insight into 
the whole vegetable empire of Polynesia. 
Our unacquaintance with much of the vegetation of the Pacific 
islets may be largely traced to the fact, that the generality of the in- 
habitants or travellers, even if imbued with any desire to turn easy 
