seasons of the year. The consequence is that a genus represented both in Hong Kong and Malaya (where the climate is tropical) produces a greater wealth of flowers and of a larger size here than in the more uniform tropics of the equatorial belt.
There is an amazing wealth of flowering shrubs and trees, many with very beautiful flowers, many with very fragrant flowers. Some are easy to place in their correct families; for example, the common wild Gordonia looks like and is related to Camellia, and the wild roses are unmistak- ably roses. But most are not so easy to name. They include a Magnolia, a Michelia with large white flowers, a Rhodoleia with groups of rose-madder coloured petals surrounded by golden bracts, an Illicium with cherry pink flowers, a Tutcheria with large Camellia-like flowers, white tinged with gold, and with masses of tangerine orange stamens. Six species of Rhododendron grow wild in the Colony; of these one is extremely abundant, another so rare that it is only known to exist on one shoulder of Victoria Peak, Hong Kong. The Heather family is represented by a very lovely Enkianthus which is common on the hillsides and bears beautiful pink bells in early spring at the time of the Chinese New Year. Flowering at the same time is a Litsea with small creamy white and exceedingly fragrant flowers.
Hong Kong possesses its Own Bauhinia which is probably the most beautiful tree of this genus in the world. The tree, Bauhinia Blakeana named in commemoration of a former Governor, Sir Henry Blake, was discovered by the fathers of the Missions Estrangères at Pokfulùm. Its origin is unknown, and as it never produces seed, it is possibly a sterile hybrid.
Many local shrubs and a few herbs have very beautiful and striking fruits, almost all the colours of the rainbow being represented. Red is the colour of the berries of many of the wild hollies-none of which have prickles-among them Ardisia which is very abundant and Chloranthus which is the most holly-like of the berried plants. Orange is a common colour of fruits including the large orange-like fruits of Melodinus, the smaller fruits of Strychnos, enclosing strychnine-bearing seeds, and the berries of the wild Kamquat. The winged fruits of Gardenia, with persistent sepals projecting like feathers from a shuttle-cock, change to orange and red when ripe, and yield a yellow dye. Yellow is the colour of numerous fruits mostly with long and elusive names; one of which is Maesa which abounds on shady hillsides. Green is characteristic of many fruits and berries which are mostly inconspicuous in consequence; among them are those of Mussaenda, the Buddha's lamp. Blue is not such a common colour: many berries are black with a bluish waxy deposit. Probably the only true blue
142