FLORA and FAUNA
Chapter 2.
Flora
To a botanist the flora of Hong Kong is exciting; to one whose knowledge of flowers is limited to a nodding acquaintance with the common herbs of the United Kingdom, it is at first sight a little disappointing. On close inspection, this impression is soon dispelled.
The flora of the island has been fully, though not completely, described in Flora Hongkongensis by G. B. Bentham, published in 1861, and in the descriptive Flora of Kwangtung and Hong Kong by S. T. Dunn and W. J. Tutcher published in 1912. Less comprehensive works include a small book, remarkable for its excellent drawings, by Mr. L. Gibbs entitled Common Hong Kong Ferns; an illustrated but unfinished series The Flowering Plants of Hong Kong by Mr. A. H. Crooks; Plants of Lan Tau Island by Mr. F. A. McClure which appeared in the Lingnan University Science Bulletin series for 1931 and numerous papers published in the Hong Kong Naturalist. Since the war, two official publications in the series Food and Flowers edited by Dr. G. A. C. Herklots have appeared, and give, amongst other information, articles on some of the more conspicuous wild plants of the Colony. Printing of part 3 of this series has been deferred for the time being.
Mr. G. B. Bentham, one of the most distinguished botanists of his time with considerable experience of other floras, in writing of Hong Kong said in part: "One is struck with the very large total amount of species crowded among so small an island, with the tropical character of the great majority of species, and with the very great diversity in the species themselves."
The flora of this Colony is tropical in nature but it is at about the northern limit of the tropical flora. Hong Kong has hot and humid summers and dry cool winters and this alternation results in a dormant period for the tropical plants during the winter. It would seem that these conditions promote the development of large flowers borne at definite
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