PREFACE. 



As the garden stores of China were known to be still un- 

 exhausted, it was resolved by the Council to send another 

 collector to Canton; and Mr. John Damper Parks was 

 permitted by the Directors of the East India Company to 

 embark on board the Lowther Castle, commanded by Cap- 

 tain Thomas Baker, and bound to China direct, in the spring 

 of 1823. The success of this second mission was great ; the 

 plants obtained by it being, for the most part, of great novelty 

 and interest, and nearly all of them having been received in 

 excellent health. In its intercourse with China, the Society 

 has uniformly received the most efficacious assistance from 

 John Reeves, Esq. resident at Canton, and from the several 

 commanders of the Honourable East India Company's ships, 

 who have on all occasions shewn the utmost readiness to 

 promote the views of the Society, by taking charge of the 

 plants sent home from Canton. 



In the spring of 1823, Mr. David Douglas was, at the 

 recommendation of Professor Hooker of Glasgow, taken into 

 the Society's service, with the intention of sending him to 

 Chili ; but the disturbed state of that country made it neces- 

 sary to abandon this design. In order not to leave Mr. 

 Douglas unemployed, it was conceived, that he might be 

 most usefully engaged in bringing from the United States 

 such plants as were wanting in our collection, particularly fruit 

 trees; with this view, he was dispatched, in June 1823, to 

 visit the United States. He arrived at New York in July, 

 and, having made choice of those fruit trees and other plants 

 in the nurseries of New York and Philadelphia which ap- 

 peared desirable, he employed the interval, before the fall of 



the year, in making a botanical excursion through the State 



