PEEFACE TO THIRD EDITION. 
It is now about ten years since I paid my first visit to 
the Celestial Empire in the capacity of Botanical Col- 
lector to the Horticultural Society of London. On my 
return to this country in 1846 I ventured to publish an 
account of my travels in a volume entitled Three Years^ 
Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China. 
This work was very favourably received by the public, 
and a second edition was called for soon after the publi- 
cation of the first. In 1848 I was deputed by the Court 
of Directors of the East India Company to re-visit China 
for the purpose of obtaining some tea manufacturers' 
implements, and a large collection of tea-plants and seeds, 
from those northern or central districts of the empire 
where the finest descriptions of teas are made for the 
European and American markets. A few months ago I 
returned to England, having accomplished the object of 
my mission, and submitted to the public an account of 
my Journey to the Tea Countries. My object, as stated 
in the Preface to that work, was to give the reader " a 
peep into the Celestial Empire ; to show its strange hills 
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