THE GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING
example of one of these, the track of typhoon Marie has been plotted on the typhoon map. This typhoon recurved some 450 miles to the East of Hong Kong on 24th September without affecting the Colony. It caused great havoc in North Japan two days later and was responsible for the sinking of the ferry boat Toya Maru.
Flora and Fauna
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 dis- appointing. 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 compre- hensive works include a small book, remarkable for its excellent drawings, by L. Gibbs entitled Common Hong Kong Ferns; an illustrated but unfinished series The Flowering Plants of Hong Kong by A. H. Crooks; Plants of Lan Tau Island by 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, three official publications in the series Food and Flowers have appeared, and give, amongst other information, articles on some of the more conspicuous wild plants of the Colony.
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