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THE FLOWERING SHRUBS AND TREES
OF HONG KONG.
PART III.
G. A. C. HERKLOTS,
In this number we have chosen to describe and illustrate five of the Of these, three are very most beautiful flowering shrubs of the Colony. abundant and widespread, one is less common and local in distribution, and the fifth rare being only known by us from one locality.
TERNSTROEMIACEAE.
(THEACEAE).
Shan' Char, For1
Trees and shrubs; leaves entire, serrate or crenate, alternate, simple, Perianth often spirally exstipulate generally leathery and evergreen. arranged, sepals 5-7 imbricate in bud, persistent, petals 5 generally, to 9, imbricate in bud, hypogynous, free or united to form a short tube at the base. Stamens indefinite generally, hypogynous, free or united at the base Ovary superior composed with each other or with the base of the petals. of 2 to indefinite united carpels and of as many chambers and bearing as Fruit is a capsule many more or less coherent styles; ovules numerous. splitting loculicidally or is indehiscent. Seeds with little or no endosperm and with a large embryo. Bentham (1), p. 25, and Rendle (8), p. 237. DISTRIBUTION.—Warmer parts of the world.
HONG
KONG GENERA.-Ternstroemia, Adinandra, Eurya 5, Pentaphylax, Actinidia, Saurauja, Schima, Gordonia, Tutcheria 2, Camellia 8. INTRODUCED SPECIES. Several varicties of Camellia japonica are cultivated in the Colony.
ECONOMIC USES.-Camellia thea (Thea sinensis) is the shrub, the leaves of which have been used as the basis of the beverage tea in China and India for at least 14 centuries. It is not grown on a large scale in the local Ter- ritories though there is considerable evidence to show that it was much more abundantly grown in the past. Many, if not most, of the villages in the more hilly districts have their small tea-terraces, e.g. those on the north side of the Kowloon range, on Lan t'au island, on Ng-tung-shan just over the border in China, and many other places.
4
CAMELLIA, Linn.
Sepals about 5, very unequal, passing more or less gradually from the bracts to the petals. Petals about as many, the innermost the largest, all usually cohering at the base. Stamens numerous, monadelphous, except the innermost, which are nearly or quite free. Anthers short, versatile. Ovary 3- to 5-celled, with several (4 or 5) pendulous ovules in each. Capsule hard, usually short, opening loculicidally. Seeds usually solitary in each cell, ovoid, not winged, without albumen. Embryo straight, with thick cotyle-
Leaves coriaceous. dons and a short radicle.-Trees.
sessile, solitary, erect or recurved." Bentham (1), p. 29.
Flowers almost
The Hong Kong Naturalist.
DISTRIBUTION.
The Flowering Shrubs and Trees of Hong Kong
195
-A genus limited to southern and eastern Asia. Eight species of Camellia are found in the local Territories, these include:-C. thea referred to above, November; C. salicifolia, common in the Happy Valley and Little Hong Kong woods, November; C. assimilis, Victoria Peak and elsewhere, February; C. caudata, Victoria Peak, Mount Parker, Ma-on-shan, Sheung Shui district, etc., November-December; and three other much less common species: all these seven species with white flowers; and Camellia hongkongensis described below, with red flowers.
1, INCH
Figure 1. Camellia hongkongensis, Seem.
CAMELLIA HONGKONGENSIS, Seem. Linn. Trans. XXII 342, t. 60.
Leaves shortly
A tree of moderate size, glabrous in all its parts. stalked, evergreen, oblong or lanceolate, acuminate, entire or slightly serrate, 3 to 5 inches long, coriaceous and shining, the veins scarcely conspicuous. Flowers erect or slightly drooping, full 2/2 inches in diameter, pink and inodorous; the sepals and petals broadly orbicular, and very slightly silky- pubescent outside. Stamens glabrous. Styles free, hairy, as well as the ovary. Capsule glabrous.
Only 3 trees known in Hong Kong, where it was first discovered by Colonel Eyre in 1849, and afterwards gathered by Champion and others. Also in Cochin China, Gaudichaud, according to Seemann. This was con- sidered by Colonel Champion to be the wild C. japonica, but Seemann has pointed out that besides some slight differences in the shape of the leaves, it has free styles and a hairy ovary, whilst in the Japanese plant the ovary is glabrous, with connate styles." Bentham (1), p. 30.
December 1932.
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