Viti: An Account of a Government Mission to the Vitian or Fijian Islands in the Years 1860-61.

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

Cambridge: Macmillan & Co. 1862. 8vo. Orig. half calf over cloth (slightly flecked and edges rubbed). Spine with gilt-dec. raised bands and title-label (slightly chipped). (xvi 448pp.). With frontisp. 3 full-page chromolithograph col.plates text-illusts double-page map and marbled endpapers and edges. 1st ed. Prelims lightly foxed but a very good copy overall. NOTE: Seemann (1825-1871) the celebrated botanist whose first influential article on plants of the New World was published when he was seventeen was sent with Colonel Smythe to Fiji in 1860 to report on the Islands before England would accept their cession to her. The work entitled "On the Resources and Vegetable Products of Fiji" when it was presented to Parliament includes Seemann's Favorable evaluation of Fiji.