FAUNA AND FLORA
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but no comprehensive list of local species has ever been published. The attractive and predominantly tropical butter- flies known popularly as 'swallow-tails' are conspicuous by a number of species. The magnificent Atlas Moth, with a wing- span from about seven to nine inches, is fairly common. Another very fine insect, also fairly common here, is the Moon Moth; this has a wing-span of about four to six inches, has swallow-tailed wings, and is mostly soft silvery green in colour.
FLORA
It is not possible to make any true distinction between the trees of Hong Kong and those of the adjacent southern part of Kwangtung Province. Among the principal trees found in the Colony are pine, Chinese banyan and camphor, to which, since the area came under British administration, have been added a large number of others, of which the most commonly seen are casuarina, eucalyptus and flamboyant.
The principal locally-grown fruits include laichee, lung- ngan, wong pei, loquat, pomelo, tangerine, banana, papaya, pineapple, custard apple, guava and Chinese varieties of plum and pear. Of these papaya, pineapple, custard apple and guava were originally introduced from South America by the Portuguese some time after the foundation of Macau. The tangerine, native to South China, was introduced to the West in the seventeenth century by the Portuguese, who transplanted it to Tangier, then under their control.
Illustrated descriptions of some of the Colony's trees will be found in the Hong Kong Annual Reports for the years
1950-53.
The flora of Hong Kong 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 in- clude a small book, remarkable for its excellent drawings, by L. Gibbs, entitled Common Hong Kong Ferns; an illustrated