NATURAL HISTORY
301
Many local shrubs and a few herbs have very beautiful and striking fruits, in all the colours of the rainbow. Ardisia, Chloran- thus and several wild hollies have brilliant red berries. The large orange-like fruits of Melodinus, the smaller fruits of Strychnos, the wild kamquat and the winged fruits of Gardenia are orange in colour. Numerous yellow fruits with elusive names abound on the hillsides, one of which is Maesa. There are many inconspicuous green fruits and berries; one of these is Mussaenda, the Buddha's Lamp. Many berries are black with a bluish waxy deposit, but probably the only true blue is that of Dichroa, a well-known medicinal plant. Several species of Callicarpa and Dianella bear purplish fruits, while those of the Raphiolepis (the so-called Hong Kong Hawthorn), the wild jasmine and the wild persimmon are black. The remarkable fruits of Sterculia, resembling a starfish, turn crimson in late summer and split open to disclose jet black seeds. At a distance these open fruits look like large red flowers.
There are several very poisonous plants which should be better known to the general public. They include two species of Strychnos which have very brightly coloured fruit resembling small oranges; one species of Strophanthus which has conspicuous fruits, un- mistakable because of their large size and horn-like shape; and one species of Gelsemium which is the most poisonous of local plants. This latter is a climber with dense terminal clusters of yellow flowers, each about half an inch in diameter, blooming towards the end of the year. All parts of the plant contain the alkaloid gelsemidine which is a spinal poison. It is said that as little as twelve grams of leaf are a fatal dose and that death follows within a few hours. It is sometimes used by country people who wish to commit suicide. Wild edible fruit includes a wild jack-fruit (Artocarpus), rose-myrtle fruits, wild bananas and raspberries. Several species of persimmon are wild, but their fruits are too astringent to be eaten raw.
There are numerous plants which closely resemble their European relatives. Old Man's Beard, the common Clematis of the English hedgerow, has five close relatives, There are four wild violets but they are scentless, like the English dog violet. English honey suckle has five relatives whose Cantonese name is 'kam ngan fa' (gold and silver flower), given because of their change in colour with age from white to yellow.