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BOTANY.
Notes Comments
EHRETIA LONGIFLORA, Champ.
**
A note on the pink-flowered variety of Ehretia longiflora, one of Hongkong's most beautiful flowering trees, will probably be of interest, in view of the flower being described in Dunn and Tutcher merely as white." The writer for several years has admired a tree of the pink variety of this Ehretia growing in Wongneichong, which blooms in late March to carly April. The flowers are in dense cymes, clustering on stalks emerging directly from the smaller branches, and the bloom, slightly scented, comes at a time when the fresh leaves are not fully formed, so as to give that
cherry blossom
appearance which several springtime trees and shrubs
have.
The pink variety is undoubtedly prettier than the white. Two trees of the pink occur within easy reach of town--the one at Wongneichong already mentioned, and one halfway along Bowen Road. Both, unfortun- ately, are doomed: the former is gradually being killed by Loranthus, and the other one is infested with fungus.
A white-flowered specimen in very good condition may be seen near the junction of Stubbs Road and the new Tai Hang Road; while another with white flowers is preserved in the Botanic Gardens, growing just below the path leading to the Superintendent's offices.
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The old descriptions-vide Bentham's "Flora Hongkongensis give the flower of Ehretia longiflora as being "white or pink.' In view of Dunn and Tutcher's seeming exclusion of the pink variety, the writer feels the need for this fresh record.
V. H. C. JARRETT.
It should be noted that the degree of coloration in different specimens ranges from a faint tinge to a definite suffusion of pink.
The pink variety is fairly abundant on the Peak, at Tai Po, and elsewhere in the Colony.-Ed.
The Hong Kong Naturalist.
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