When the news of the peace with China first reached England, in the autumn of 1842, I obtained the appointment of Botanical Collector to the Horticultural Society of London, and proceeded to China in that capacity early in the spring of the following year. In laying my travels and their results before the public, I beg to say at the commencement, that I have no intention of writing or "making" a "book on China." By this I mean such books as have often...