PREFACE. 
11* 
colony, and by their collections and notes materially increased our 
knowledge of many of its plants, especially the Ferns and Pandani. 
15. Dupont . A catalogue of the Flowering Plants of Mauritius, con- 
tained in the 7th volume of the Transactions of the Eoyal Society of 
Arts and Sciences, pages 116 to 161. 
16. Madame Moon. A collection of beautiful coloured water 
colour drawings of plants, made during a residence of many years in 
the colony by Madame Moon, kindly sent to Kew by Mr. Caldwell, to 
be used in preparing this -work. 
For our principal supply of material from the Seychelles we are 
indebted to Mr. John Horne, F.L.S., the present director of the 
Botanic G-arden, at Pamplemousses, who went out from Kew. He has 
paid two visits to the group, one in 1871 and the other in 1874, 
during which he specially devoted himself to the task of exploring its 
botany. His collections amount to nearly 700 numbers, and of these 
he has sent a complete set to Kew, accompanied by copious notes on 
the habit and special stations of the plants. His second collection, 
the largest of the two, only arrived after the present work was nearly 
all written. We had previously received smaller collections of 
Seychelles plants from M. Bojer, Hr. Kirk, Dr. Percival Wright, and 
the Paris Museum, the latter gathered by M. Auguste Perville, about 
1840. Dr. Wright, who visited the group in 1867, has published in 
the Transactions of the Eoyal Irish Academy three papers, in two of 
which I have co-operated, in which he has given illustrations of several 
of the more interesting endemic plants of the group. 
On Eodriguez a collection of about 100 species was made several 
years ago, during short visits by Messrs. Bouton and Duncan ; and 
more recently the island has been thoroughly explored by Dr. I. B. 
Balfour, who accompanied as naturalist the Transit of Venus expedition 
and remained upon it in 1874, from August to December. Dr. Bal- 
four’s plants reached Kew just as we were beginning to print, and his 
explorations and those of Mr. Horne have given this work a much 
greater degree of completeness than, was anticipated when it was 
planned four years ago. Dr. Balfour’s collection has been divided 
between Kew, the British Museum, and the Edinburgh Botanic 
Garden, and a full account of the plants, with figures of the new 
genera and most of the new species, will shortly be published in his 
report to the Eoyal Society. 
The keys and descriptions of orders aud genera have been drawn 
