PREFACE. 
IX 
the last were drawn because they seemed to follow the premises, and 
if they be not adopted will only have the fate of others better than 
themselves. 
In making acknowledgments it seems almost superfluous to state 
that I am under the deepest obligations to Sir Joseph Banks, whose 
support to my scientific views was the natural consequence of their 
being laudable and useful. In leaving England I carried with me 
his instructions respecting the objects to be kept most closely in 
view during my absence, and since my return have derived from 
the freest access to his library and herbarium all possible facilities 
in constructing this work. 
Of the assistance of Robert Brown, Esq. the following pages bear 
sufficient evidence. His description of a new genus, which, in 
friendly partiality, he has named Abelia , and of two new species of 
plants, the one leading to the establishment of a new natural order, 
and the other fixing the place in the natural method of a genus 
hitherto of doubtful affinity, gives unequivocal value to my Appendix. 
To Mr. Morrison’s journal I owe in a great measure the short 
account of the progress of the Embassy during the period of my 
illness, and some interesting notes respecting transactions from which 
I was absent. Some of these notes would have been incorporated 
with the text had I possessed the journal at an earlier period. To 
Mr. Cooke’s journal I have been also much indebted, and to the 
same gentleman I owe two drawings which illustrate the book. The 
drawings of the Quercus Chinensis and Eurya Chinensis are from 
the tried pencil of my friend W. Hooker, Esq. To Mr. H. Raper, 
an officer of the Alceste, I am indebted for all the geological views, 
except two, of the Cape of Good Hope, taken on the spot, and pos- 
sessing not their least value in their minute accuracy. The plate 
of the temple of Quong-ying is from a sketch which I obtained from 
the kindness of Sir George Staunton. The other drawings, not 
bearing the names of professed artists, I am answerable for. 
