[ { "id": 204262, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n27\n\nFLOWERS OF HONG KONG\n\nSynopsis of a lecture delivered on November 2, 1960, based on Mr. F. A. Nixon's collection of colour transparencies.\n\nB. T. CHIU, B.Sc.\n\nThe flora of Hong Kong is of a mixed nature; partly tropical, partly subtropical, and partly temperate; and is famous for its exotic flowering trees and shrubs. The majority of us know little about it, because literature on the flora is scarce and hardly accessible to the layman. Bentham's \"Flora hongkongensis\" (1861), Dunn and Tutcher's \"Flora of Kwangtung and Hong Kong\" (1912), and most of Herklots' work of the thirties and 'forties are out of print. We are privileged in being given this opportunity in viewing examples of Hong Kong flowers at their best selected from each month of the year: some familiar, others rare; some native, others introduced; and a few very special ones, indigenous to Hong Kong. Special tribute is due to Mr. Nixon for his magnificent achievement as a photographer, and for his pursuit of the flora through the years into every corner, however perilous, of the countryside.\n\nThe following transparencies were projected:\n\nTREES\n\nDelonix regia (Flame of the Forest)\n\nBauhinia blakeana (orchid-like Bauhinia)\n\nB. variegata (deciduous Bauhinia)\n\nCassia fistula (Golden shower)\n\nC. nodosa (Pink and white shower)\n\nErythrina indica (Coral Tree)\n\nCrataeva religiosa (Spider Tree)\n\nAleurites montana (Wood or Tung Oil Tree)\n\nCamellia japonica (Camellia)\n\nC. hongkongensis (Crimson Hong Kong Camellia)\n\nC. granthamiana (White Hongkong Camellia)\n\nJacaranda ovalifolia (Jacaranda)\n\nSpathodea campanulata (African Tulip Tree)\n\nPaulownia tomentosa (Paulownia)\n\nRhodoleia championi (King of Hanging Bells)\n\nSHRUBS\n\nHibiscus rosa-sinensis (Rose of China)\n\nH. schizopetalus (Fringed hibiscus)\n\nH. mutabilis (Cotton rose)\n\nRhododendron simsii (Red Rhododendron)\n\nR. pulcherrimum (Purple Rhododendron)\n\nPage 30\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204263, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n28\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nEnkianthus quinqueflorus (Chinese Bell) Callistemon rigidus (Red bottle brush) Melastoma candidum (Melastoma) Musseander pubescens (Buddha's Lamp) Ixora chinensis (Flame flower)\n\nCLIMBERS Bauhinia glauca (Pink climbing Bauhinia)\n\nPyrostegia venusta (Fire cracker vine) Lonicera confusa (Honey suckle)\n\n4\n\nHERBS\n\nBongainvillea spectabilis (Bongainvillea) Nelumbium nelumbo (Lotus)\n\nPlatycodon grandiflora (Hong Kong Canterbury Bell) Epiphyllum sp. (Night Blooming Cactus) Mimosa pudica (Sensitive Plant) Hemerocallis fulva (Day Lily)\n\nLilium brownii (Local Chinese Lily) Iris speculatrix (Hong Kong Iris) Arundina chinensis (Bamboo orchid)\n\nHabenaria susannae (Susan orchid)\n\nShort comments were made for each slide and some perhaps deserve recording.\n\nIn temperate countries, plants bearing legume fruits are mostly herbaceous, but in Hong Kong the woody habit of trees, shrubs, and climbers of this order predominates. There are the many different species of Bauhinia, recognized by their bilobed leaves; Delonix regia, or Flame of the Forest, first introduced to Hong Kong in 1908 from Madagascar; the many different species of Cassia with their pink, white, or yellow blooms, and the Erythrina with their coral red flowers. The cultivation of these has greatly beautified our landscape.\n\nThe indigenous plants of Hong Kong require popularizing. Examples are Bauhinia blakeana, discovered in 1908 by Fathers of the Mission Etrangères at Pokfulum and named after Sir Henry Blake, the Governor of Hong Kong at that time; Rhodoleia championi, collected in 1849 by Captain Champion who recorded it as \"the handsomest of Hong Kong's flowering trees\", and noted by Hance in 1870 \"for the extreme beauty of its flowers and its rarity\", Iris speculatrix, discovered and described by Hance in 1875 and regarded as a most interesting discovery because it was then \"the only Iris yet known as a native of S.E. Asia.\" Lastly, there are the Camellias of Hong Kong, members of the Tea family with its close relative Camellia sinensis whose leaves provide us with that \"Indispensible adjunct of daily life: tea\". Hong Kong is specially noted for at least two out of the five indigenous species: Camellia hongkongensis with pure crimson flowers, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204568, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 49, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "44\n\nFLOWERS OF HONG KONG\n\nBEK-TO CHIU, B.Sc.*\n\nMiss Chiu gave the second of her talks to the Society on \"The Flowers of Hong Kong\" illustrated by Mr. F. A. Nixon's collection of colour transparencies on 16th July 1962. She took as her subject \"Summer Flowers and Fruits, with comments on other seasonal Plants\".\n\nThrough the generosity of our President, Dr. J. R. Jones, it has been possible to reproduce six of Mr. Nixon's coloured transparencies and these are accompanied by Miss Chiu's comments on them. The plants selected are:\n\nIndigenous plants: Camellia hongkongensis, Seem.\n\n紅茶花\n\nTutcheria spectabilis, Dunn.\n\n榻木\n\nRhodoleia championi, Hook.\n\n紅鏡盞\n\nBauhinia blakeana, Dunn.\n\n紅荊\n\nIntroduced plants: Gordonia axillaris, (Roxb.) Dietr.\n\n茶花\n\nBauhinia variegata, Linn.\n\n紫荊\n\n*Lecturer in Botany in the University of Hong Kong.\n\nI\n\n[Editor]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204573, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "Bauhinia blakeana, Dunn.\n\nPhotograph by F. A. NixON", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204579, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "# FLOWERS OF HONG KONG\n\n## BAUHINIA BLAKEANA, DUNN.\n\nFamily: Caesalpiniaceae (or a subfamily in Leguminosae)\n\n洋金鳳科\n\nCommon names: Red flowered Camel's Foot\n\nHong Kong Bauhinia\n\nHong Kong Orchid Tree\n\n49\n\nThis Hong Kong Bauhinia was first discovered by the fathers of the Missions Etrangères at Pokfulum near \"the ruins of a house on the seashore\" and was first described in 1908 by Mr. T. S. Dunn, Superintendent of Gardens and Forestry Department, who named it blakeana in honour of Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Hong Kong until 1903, for his keen botanical interest during his governorship. This has been regarded as the most beautiful and spectacular of all Bauhinias. The flowers are fragrant, large, 5-6 inches in diameter, and orchid-like with rhodamine purple petals overlaid with deep crimson streaks or patches. The inflorescences of dense racemes terminate the branches and take months to unfold and hence the blooming season lasts from October to April. Each flower remains blooming for several days and is shed completely, never maturing into fruit nor seed. Its origin is still unknown and no similar plant has been found elsewhere in the world.\n\nThe medium-size tree is an evergreen, with long spreading and graceful branches bearing handsome, large bilobed leaves, characteristic of the genus, and named after two brothers, surnamed Bauhin, who were herbalists. This was to describe their inseparable relationship. The outline of the leaf blade is comparable to that of the foot of a camel and hence one of its common names. The leaves are of a dark bluish green, with a soft felty appearance and the leaf blade traversed by 13 palmate main veins. The branches are tender and break easily and are always more severely devastated after typhoons than any other trees. Their sprouting power, however, is excellent, reviving quickly with numerous new shoots, within a short time.\n\nThe attractiveness and worth of Bauhinia blakeana is becoming increasingly known. It is cultivated in the Colony as well as in other subtropical parts of the world: Amoy and Canton in China, and Los Angeles and Florida in U.S.A. where there is a hot, humid summer and a cool, dry winter. Since no seed is produced, propagation is by grafting and air layering.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204580, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "50\n\nBEK-TO CHIU\n\nBAUHINIA VARIEGATA, LINN * # Family: Caesalpiniaceae #4# 鳳科\n\nCommon names: Camel's Foot Tree\n\nOrchid Tree\n\nMountain Ebony\n\nThis Bauhinia was introduced from India and is cultivated in the different parts of the Colony for its profusion of blooms in early spring from mid-January to the end of April with its \"peak\" often coinciding with Ching Ming Festival. The inflorescences of dense racemes, each shorter but more numerous than those of Bauhinia blakeana, arise from the axils of the leaves. The leaves are usually shed just before blooming time. Thus the bluish-grey bare branches become heavily laden with tufts of blooms, which, at a distance, appear like cherry or apple blossoms, with a magnificent display of colours, ranging from purple-red, rose-pink to white. It is most decorative and colourful to the roadsides and the hillsides on which they grow and a welcome indication that spring is here.\n\nThe flowers are fragrant and resemble those of B. blakeana in structure and general appearance but are smaller in size and softer and daintier in texture, maturing readily into fruits which are flattened legumes (pea pods) about a foot long and 1/2 inch wide, green when young, becoming black on ripening. These legumes are dehiscent, splitting along both sutures explosively, dispersing the seeds to considerable distances. The seeds germinate readily and the young plants bloom in the second year. Many of the hillside trees are most likely self-sown.\n\nWhen the trees are in full foliage in the summer and autumn, they are difficult to distinguish from those of B. blakeana, except by observing the bilobed leaves which are completely glabrous, appearing thin and of a paler green colour. The leaf blades are traversed by eleven palmate main veins. In winter, the leaves start to deteriorate, in preparation for shedding but before the last blooms are over in spring, the new leaves unfold. This deciduous Bauhinia hardly ever has bare branches throughout the year.\n\nIt is said that in India the young leaves and the unopened flower buds are eaten and that nearly every part of the tree is used medicinally. The bark is used in tanning and dyeing.\n\nMore cultivation of Bauhinia variegata should be encouraged to add colour and beauty to the already beautiful Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 } ]