IT is now nearly fourteen years since I landed in China for the first time, in the capacity of Botanical Collector to the Horticultural Society of London. From 1848 to the beginning of 1851 I was engaged by the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company in procuring supplies of tea-plants, seeds, implements, and green-tea makers, for the government plantations in the Himalayas. In the end of 1852 I was deputed a second time by the East India Company for the purpose of adding to the collections already formed, and particularly of procuring some first-rate black-tea makers for the experimental tea-farms in India. The present volume gives an account of my last travels amongst the Chinese - from 1852 to 1856 - which it is hoped will be found as interesting as my former 'Three Years' Wanderings, ' and 'Journey to the Tea Countries.'