FLORA OF THE VITIAN ISLANDS. vil 
American Academy; the Ferns and allied Orders being worked up by Mr. Bracken- 
ridge.* 
The next botanical explorer was Professor W. H. Harvey, of Dublin, who, embarking 
at Sydney in the missionary vessel ‘John Wesley,’ touched at Viti in August, 1855, and 
thence proceeded to the Tongan group, returning home by way of South America. 
No account of this visit has been published, owing to a mental affliction which overtook 
this accomplished botanist during his passage to the west coast of South America. But 
it appears that Harvey collected at Lakeba, Bau, Viwa, and Nadi, on the southern shores 
of Vanua Levu. His specimens, as far as they exist at the British Museum and at Kew, 
have been incorporated with this Flora.+ 
In 1852 the British Admiralty determined to recommission H.M.S. Herald for the 
purpose of surveying some of the little-known groups of islands in the South Polyne- 
sian Ocean, and to entrust the command of her to Captain Denham, R.N, Mr. John 
M‘Gillivray and Mr. William Milne were appointed to her as naturalists, the latter as 
assistant to the former.t No connected narrative of this voyage has been published, but a 
sketch of an excursion made (August 14 to September 24, 1856), up the Rewa River 
to Namosi, in Viti Levu, has been described by Mr. Milne,§ and also by Dr. Macdonald, 
the surgeon of the expedition.| Both M‘Gillivray and Milne were excellent collectors, 
who gathered a great number of specimens in Ovalau, Viti Levu, Matuku, Narai, Gau, and 
Vanua Levu. M'Gillivray was a man of great promise, but for some weighty reason 
* With the exception of a few presentation copies of Mr. Brackenridge’s portion of this work which 
happened to haye been sent off to Europe, the whole stock was burnt in the fire which destroyed the 
storehouse, so that it has now become extremely rare. As the publications of the United States 
Exploring Expedition have not yet been completed, it would be desirable to republish Brackenridge’s 
portion, either unaltered, or brought up to the present state of science. The United States Government 
ought cheerfully to grant the sums, a mere bagatelle to so rich a nation, which may be required 
to finish in the same style as begun, the botanical record of a scientific expedition of which the great 
American people may well be proud. . 
+ A few dates respecting Harvey’s visit to Viti may be gathered from a letter published in Hooker’s 
‘ Journal of Botany,’ London, 1856, p. 22, and the labels attached to his distributed specimens. Though 
he was on yery friendly terms with me, and never refused his assistance to me, I could not get him to 
write a line on his Vitian visit for this Historical Notice; and knowing the subject to bea painful one to 
him, I could not urge it beyond a certain point. He told me, however, in conversation that he did not 
collect many, if any, Seaweeds in Viti. Harvey died May 15, 1866, and an obituary notice of him was 
published in Seemann’s ‘ Journal of Botany,’ 1866, p. 236. 
{ I held the appointment of Naturalist of H.M.S, Herald from July, 1845, to June, 1851, and was 
after that time employed by the Admiralty in publishing the results of that voyage, and could, therefore, not 
accept the reappointment to a vessel with which my name is so intimately connected, Some of the results 
which I obtained during her voyage in the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, are utilized in this Flora, as 
want of space prevented me from dealing with them in my ‘ Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald.’ 
§ Hooker's ‘ Journal of Botany,’ 1857, p. 106. 
| ‘Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London,’ vol. EXVil. 
