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FLORA AND FAUNA.
EIGHT HONG KONG TREES
Camphor, laichee, Chinese banyan and pine are the most common trees native to Hong Kong and the New Territories, but until its foundation as a British Colony the Island of Hong Kong had very few trees on it and must have resembled in this respect Lantao Island as it is to-day, where the only trees to be found are in small sheltered valleys, near villages or Buddhist settlements. Due to careful planting over a succession of years the Colony now boasts a wide variety of trees, although except in the case of such popular trees as casuarina and flamboyant there are not many specimens of each imported variety. It is difficult too to find out the correct names of many of the trees which are now to be seen on the Island. The following descriptions, accompanied in each case by a photograph, provide a simple lesson in Hong Kong tree recognition for the visitor to the Colony and for the confirmed walker who likes to know the names of the trees he passes.
1.
Burmese Rose-Wood (Pterocarpus Indicus)
This large, handsome tree with drooping.branches and blood- coloured latex, is a native of India. The tree growing in front of the Colonial Secretariat in Lower Albert Road is probably the largest tree in the Colony. It grows to a height of 60 feet with a rounded crown 50 feet in diameter and a trunk 12 feet in girth. The leaves are 6 to 12 inches long, and each leaf has 7 to 10 ovate, blunt or sharp-pointed leaflets 2 to 4 inches long. The flowers are yellow, sweetly scented, about half-an-inch long, and borne profusely on slender axillary and terminal branches. The rounded flat pods are about 1 inches in diameter. It is a valuable tree both for orna- mental planting and for its wood. Its timber which may be red, yellow or white, has a roselike odour, and is used extensively in the East for fine furniture.
2. Red Cotton Tree (Gossampinus Malabarica)
A large, deciduous tree, reaching to a height of 70 feet, with a straight central trunk extending through the crown with whorls of three to five branches at intervals of about 3 feet. The twigs are rather thick and stubby. Protruding from the bark of the trunk and main branches are large spines or thorns giving it a wart-like appearance making climbing difficult if not impossible. The leaves are compound with five to seven leaflets arranged like the fingers radiating from the palm of the hand. In Spring, the tree is often
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