[
    {
        "id": 204237,
        "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": 5,
        "title": "RAS-1961",
        "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nBesides the Governor and Shortrede, the first office-bearers included Major-General D'Aguilar, Peter Young the Colonial Surgeon, Mercer the Colonial Treasurer, John Bowring the Younger (of Jardines); and also Thomas Wade, the celebrated interpreter and Envoy to China, who later became famous as inventor of the Wade System of romanization of Chinese still in general use today, and, as Sir Thomas, was to become President of the Society in London in 1887.\n\nIn his Inaugural Address as President, Sir John Davis stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany, as well as to literary pursuits, and suggested that he could get the sanction of the Colonial Office to the grant of a moderate piece of ground for a Botanical Garden. Sir John left the Colony in 1848; but, as the result of a stirring appeal by Mr. G. Gutzlaff, the missionary, at a meeting of the Society in August 1848, the project was approved, although it was not carried into effect until the governorship of Sir John Bowring (the younger John Bowring's father), and then the Garden was placed under Government control and not under that of the Society.\n\nDuring the twelve years of its life, the Society was dogged to some extent by the personal animosities prevalent in Hong Kong in the early days; but it flourished under the inspiration of Sir John Davis, and also for a time under Sir John Bowring, who enjoyed a European reputation as a scholar—as President he preferred to be called Dr. Bowring—and who animated the Society with his personal influence and by his contributions to its discussions. The Society had no permanent home of its own, but in 1849 it was granted by Sir S. G. Bonham a room in the Supreme Court building. It published six volumes of Transactions, the first in 1847 and the last in 1859.\n\nWith the departure of Sir John Bowring in May 1859 and the death in the September following of the Branch's devoted Secretary—Dr. W. A. Harland, M.D.—the Society collapsed. The efforts of Dr. James Legge, as well as those of Sir Hercules Robinson, the new Governor, as President, of the Bishop of Victoria and of the Acting Chief Justice as Vice-Presidents and of Harry (later Sir Harry) S. Parkes were of no avail.\n\nThe collapse of the Society came at an unfortunate time and deprived it of the prestige and momentum which it would have gained from the work of some of its famous members. Legge was on the eve of publishing his famous translation of the Chinese Classics, which could be printed and distributed only through the generosity of Joseph Jardine, and his successor Sir Robert Jardine, and of John Dent, the heads of the two largest merchant houses in the Colony. A little later, in 1865, T. W. Kingsmill had to resort to the aid of the Shanghai Branch for the publication of his studies on the geology of Hong Kong.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204242,
        "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": 10,
        "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\n7\n\nwho stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany as well as to literary pursuits. It may not be generally known that it was as the result of the efforts of the Royal Asiatic Society that Government was persuaded to grant a piece of ground for a Botanical Garden which was projected in the time of Sir John Davis and carried into effect when Sir John Bowring was President. Following this precedent we had three excellent lectures illustrated with a wealth of coloured slides by the following:\n\nCaptain A. M. Macfarlane on \"Birds of Hong Kong\" illustrated by coloured slides and a tape record of bird songs and calls. Miss B. T. Chiu on \"Flowers of Hong Kong\" illustrated Mr. P. A. Nixon's coloured slides, and\n\nMr. J. D. Bromhall on \"The Marine Fauna of Hong Kong\" illustrated by coloured slides.\n\nThese lectures were in part designed to appeal to the educational circles and it is hoped that with wider publicity we may have the benefit of more members from the schools and colleges of the Colony.\n\nIn concluding my reference to the lectures and addresses I wish to record our deep gratitude to those who have contributed so richly and so readily to the success of our first year's record.\n\nAll except two of the meetings held last year were held in the rooms of the British Council and the Branch owes a debt of gratitude to the generous assistance of the British Council and of its Representative, Mr. R. E. Lawry, for affording us, free of charge, the use of these rooms as well as of the projector and operator for the slides in illustration of the lectures. Without this assistance it would have been difficult for the Branch to carry on as the moderate yearly subscription of $20.00 per member would not otherwise go far towards paying our expenses, including the hire of rooms and the issue to every member of a free copy of the Journal of the Branch.\n\nThe Hong Kong Branch has no home of its own. It is indicative of the importance which Governments attached to the Royal Asiatic Society 100 years ago that the Government of Hong Kong granted to the Hong Kong Branch a room in the Supreme Court, where it could hold its meetings and house the valuable library which it built up and which it had eventually to hand over to the Morrison Education Society.\n\nIn Shanghai the Government granted to the North China Branch a parcel of land on which, with the aid of generous grants from The Shanghai Municipal Council and the French Council",
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        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704",
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    },
    {
        "id": 204256,
        "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": 24,
        "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\n21\n\nA most odd and interesting bird to be seen around Victoria from Garden Road to the University is the Rose-ringed Paroquet, presumably introduced but now firmly established as a resident. Sometimes parties of up to sixteen birds have been seen.\n\nA noisy but seldom seen family are the Cuckoos, who are well represented here, nearly all of them summer visitors. The Indian Cuckoo, or ‘One-more-bottle Bird', the Large Hawk-cuckoo or 'Brain-fever Bird', and the Plaintive Cuckoo or 'Rain-bird', are three summer visitors to certain favoured localities, mainly in the northern New Territories. The Koel is more common and widespread. All these four are parasites of smaller birds, too lazy to make a nest of their own. The Crow-Pheasant and Lesser Crow-Pheasant (which are neither crows nor pheasants!) are also quite common and widespread: both of them are to some extent hill birds, and the former likes more wooded country than the latter.\n\nTwo species of owl are resident in the Colony, the Barred Owlet, whose bubbling call is heard in the northern New Territories, and the Collared Scops Owl both there and on Hong Kong Island, especially on The Peak.\n\nThe Savannah Nightjar must breed in the Colony, for its whip-lash call is heard frequently over many open spaces in the New Territories during the spring and summer, but no nest has yet been found.\n\nHouse-swifts nest, several pairs at a time, under the verandahs of shops and houses in at least half-a-dozen towns. Many thousands of these and the Large White-rumped Swift pass through the Colony on migration.\n\nThe kingfishers are one of the sights of Hong Kong's bird-life. The Common Kingfisher, the one seen in Europe, is here all the year round and almost certainly nests. The White-breasted Kingfisher and Black-capped Kingfisher are both large, very gaily-coloured birds, although the first is much more common than the second. The Pied Kingfisher is confined to the Deep Bay area, where probably only one pair nests, although formerly this species used to be quite common also.\n\nThe Great Barbet, which as might be expected of a close relative of the woodpeckers is a lover of big trees, may be heard calling its monotonous 'coo-lee-you' from the Norfolk Island Pine in the Botanical Gardens and from several woods in the north-eastern New Territories where it breeds. A small relation, the Wryneck, may be seen in winter, quite frequently in scrubby foothill country.\n\nSwallows are a well-loved and common summer visitor to the Colony, and occasionally a few birds may be seen even on the coldest days of winter. Large numbers also come through on passage.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205623,
        "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-1968",
        "page_number": 165,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "160\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nnot built a palace, pays the rent of one for his own accommodation out of the public purse.\" The Government accounts for the period reveal that the rent was paid to Johnston for its hire by Government. But it is quite clear from Davis's letter to Stanley that, in August 1844, he could only have been living in Johnston's House if it were then known as the 'Record Office.' That is not beyond possibility for, if the early buildings on the site in the present Botanical Gardens were known as the 'Record Office' when Johnston lived there, his later residence may have attracted the same name to distinguish it from 'Government House.' But that conclusion cannot disturb the main argument.\n\nAs a postscript, it is worth commenting on the suggestion that Sir Samuel Bonham, third Governor, lived at Spring Gardens (Spring Garden Lane in the present Wanchai). Sayer quotes a reference from Robert Fortune's Tea Districts of China (1852) and comments that it is the first and only evidence that a Governor of Hong Kong lived at Spring Gardens. Sayer should have read his Friend of China where he would have discovered advertised, after Bonham's departure from Hong Kong, the sale of a house, doubtless one of those depicted on Murdoch Bruce's sketch of Spring Gardens, which was stated to have been lately in the occupation of Bonham. Fortune was right; or, as Sayer would have put it, he was a veracious witness,12\n\nHong Kong, 1968,\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS Evans\n\nNOTES\n\n1G. R. Sayer, Hong Kong: Birth, Adolescence and Coming of Age, 1937, Oxford University Press.\n\n2ibid, p. 211.\n\n3Johnston to Pottinger, 12 November 1841; CO129/10, f. 51 (Colonial Office Records).\n\n4c.g. Pottinger to General Burrell, 7 March 1842; CO129/10, f. 114.\n\n5Pottinger to Johnston, 26 May 1842; CO129/10, f. 204.\n\n6Davis to Lord Stanley, 16 August 1844; CO129/7, f. 20.\n\n7Friend of China, Overland Summary, 23 December 1843.\n\n8Woosnam to Gordon, 18 April 1843; CO129/10, f. 360.\n\n9Gordon to Pottinger, 10 February 1844; CO129/5, f. 141.\n\n10Pottinger to Johnston, 21 October 1843; CO129/10, f. 522.\n\n11Friend of China, 18 April 1846.\n\n12See also Friend of China, 26 December 1849. The house was erected by Messrs. Blenkin, Rawson & Co. on Marine Lot 42 and rented to Government for £500 p.a.\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 205931,
        "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-1970",
        "page_number": 11,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "the Society included the hierarchy of the Government, Military, Medical and Mercantile communities.\n\nIn his Inaugural Address as President of the Hong Kong Branch, Sir John Davis stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany, as well as to literary pursuits, and suggested that he could get the sanction of the Colonial Office to the grant of a moderate piece of ground for a Botanical Garden. Sir John left the Colony in 1848; but, as the result of a stirring appeal by the Rev. C. Gutzlaff at a meeting of the Society in August 1848, the project was approved, although it was not carried into effect until the governorship of Sir John Bowring, and then the Garden was placed under Government control and not under that of the Society.\n\nThe Society was fortunate in enjoying influential Government and press support, including that of the China Mail, and continued under Sir George Bonham who gave the Society a room in the old Supreme Court building to hold its meetings and to house its library.\n\nWith the departure of Sir John Bowring in May 1859, and the death in the September following of the Branch's devoted Secretary, the Society collapsed. The efforts of Dr. James Legge, as well as those of Sir Hercules Robinson, the new Governor, as President, of the Bishop of Victoria and of the Acting Chief Justice as Vice-Presidents and of Harry (later Sir Harry) S. Parkes were of no avail.\n\nThe collapse of the Society came at an unfortunate time and deprived it of the prestige and momentum which it would undoubtedly have gained from the work of some of its famous members. Legge was on the eve of publishing his famous translation of the Chinese Classics, which eventually appeared only through the generosity of Joseph Jardine (and his successor Sir Robert Jardine) and of John Dent, the heads of the two largest merchant houses in the Colony. A little later, in 1865, T. W. Kingsmill had to resort to the aid of the Shanghai Branch for the publication of his studies on the geology of Hong Kong.\n\nIt was thus with a deep sense of responsibility, and also of duty, that it was decided to revive this Society in 1959 after the lapse of a century.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210721,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 72,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "55\n\nTHE HONG KONG BOTANICAL GARDENS, A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\nThe Victorian era in Europe was obsessed by the idea of cultivating exotic plants which had become more readily available as plant hunters explored more distant regions of the world. The culmination of this concept was the establishment of large botanic gardens where both local and exotic plants could be admired (often under unnatural conditions) by an incredulous populace eager to learn more of the distant parts of the Empire. In addition to this botanical zeal in Europe, the idea spread to various other areas of the British Commonwealth and botanical gardens soon sprang up in Rangoon, New Delhi, Madras, and Singapore, where for the first time local people were able to familiarize themselves with plants from their own as well as other regions of the world. In addition to this seemingly cosmetic role, botanical gardens also served other, more pragmatic, interests as the growth characteristics of more economically important plants could be examined for the first time under controlled conditions, enabling them to be exploited by commercial interests with an eye towards export trade.\n\nIn Hong Kong, the idea of establishing a Public Garden was mentioned officially for the first time in 1848, but even prior to that date, on March 27th, 1844, a letter of thanks from the Governor of Hong Kong was sent to the Deputy Governor of Bengal thanking him for a copy of the printed report of the Honorable Company's Botanic Gardens, indicating that the idea of a similar garden in Hong Kong had already been mooted. The first indication that Hong Kong was to be blessed with such a garden was made by Charles Gutzlaff in a statement to the Hong Kong branch of the\n\nAUTHORS' ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:\n\nThe authors wish to express their gratitude to the staff of the Library and Archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, the Public Records Office of Hong Kong, and the City Hall Public Library, Hong Kong, for their kind assistance.\n\nS.P. Lau wishes to acknowledge with thanks the permission given by the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries to pursue a Ph.D. project at the University of Hong Kong, this article being a section of the thesis under preparation.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210723,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 74,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "57\n\nRoyal Asiatic Society on July 4th 1848. Mr. Gutzlaff's suggestion, in the form of a letter to the Governor, was read to the Society on August 8th of that year, resulting in the suggestion \"that a committee be appointed to make enquiries as to the best site, the probable expenses etc. etc. and to report generally on the subject”. At a meeting of the Society, on November 7th later in the same year it was proposed, \"That the Garden Committee be authorized to draw up a memorial to the Colonial Government and to the Royal Asiatic Society for assistance, either by funds or otherwise, towards establishing a Botanical Garden in Hongkong; and also to correspond with such of the Botanical or Horticultural Societies in England as may be likely to assist in furthering the object in view.”\n\nThat the idea that a Public Botanical Garden in Hong Kong was generally discussed in both government and commercial circles about this time can be gleaned from the correspondence of one C.T. Braine, an employee of Dent & Co., a property firm, who offered his house, “Greenbank”, and its attendant garden to the government both as a suitable government house and as a well-stocked garden that was ripe for development and expansion as a public garden. Braine took the unusual step of writing on June 26th 1850, with his offer direct to Earl Grey as Secretary for State to the Colonies, who redirected Braine's letter to the Governor of Hong Kong for comment. The Governor, in turn, replied to Earl Grey on September 25th, 1850 emphatically refusing to accept either the grounds or the house as being suitable:\n\n\"In reply I beg to report to your Lordship that I cannot recommend the garden in question be taken over at the expense of the State, reference being had to the financial resources of the Colony, as well as to the absence of any person to whom it would be possible to confide the charge of such an establishment: it must be remembered moreover, that independently of the original cost of the ground, a Superintendent and several Assistants must of necessity be maintained at a permanent expenditure, which, I am satisfied, would in the end prove by no means inconsiderable.\n\nFrom Mr. Braine's letter I find he has informed your",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210724,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 75,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "58 \n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU \n\nLordship that the house in which he resided, (situated within the grounds alluded to), has been tendered to me for a Government House; I did not trouble your Lordship with this matter, being of opinion that the house in question, considering its locality and other circumstances connected with it, is totally unsuitable for the purpose.\" \n\nFollowing continued discussions with the Hong Kong Government, the Governor, Dr. Sir John Bowring, F.R.S., F.L.S. a botanist in his own right, wrote on August 14th 1855 to Lord John Russell asking for money from the Colonial Funds to establish “a Public Botanic Garden”. In addition, Bowring suggested that a house would be built for such a person (to be recommended by Sir William Hooker, Superintendent of Kew Gardens). Bowring stressed the commercial importance of the venture in the following passage: \n\n\"The access we are now obtaining to the Chinese Empire itself, and to circumjacent countries, would enable me, with such an auxiliary, to render valuable services, not to science alone, but to the commercial interests. As associated with science, inquiries are constantly addressed to me on the subject of dyes, oleaginous matters, fibres for textile purposes, materials for paper-making, and other topics; which the presence of a Botanist would enable me more satisfactorily to answer. \n\n++ \n\nThe Governor continued; \n\n\"Independently of which I might be able to render services to the Botanic Gardens in India, — to send useful plants and fruits to the mother Country and the Colonies, and generally to promote objects to which I cannot now personally attend,. . . \n\nDespite these overtures to London not much was done in Hong Kong to get the Botanical Gardens established, though various despatches in the form of Answers to Queries from Downing \n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210725,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 76,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "59\n\nStreet on the Natural History of Hongkong contained numerous references to the flora of the region and these notices would undoubtedly have had the effect of keeping the idea of a Botanical Garden in the minds of the relevant authorities, both in Hongkong and in London. For example, in Despatch no. 130 of 1860 it is stated that:\n\n\"Botanical notices have appeared in Hooker's Journal of Botany 1842. Collections made by Mr. R.B. Hinds, Surgeon, H.M. Ship “Sulphur”. Also in Journal of Horticultural Society 1844 and subsequent numbers by Lindley, of plants collected by Mr. Fortune on his first visit to China.\n\nIn Walpers Annales, descriptions by Dr. Hance of Hong Kong Plants. Some plants were described by the Botanist Mr. Wright attached to the American exploring expedition published by that government.\n\nA review of the Flora of the Colony, derived chiefly from the collections of the late Major Champion, 95th Regiment, was undertaken by Mr. Bentham, V.P.L.S. in Sir W. Hooker's \"Journal of Botany”, 1851 and succeeding years. This version was entitled 'Florula Hongkongensis'. The concluding section of the Botany of the voyage of H.M. Ship “Herald\" (London 1852-7, -4 to 100 plates) edited by Dr. Seemann, under the authority of the Lords Commissions of the Admiralty, is entirely devoted to Hong Kong, and includes, (in addition to the materials at the disposal of Mr. Bentham), the collections of Dr. Seemann himself, (not extensive, however). Since the date of these publications however, the knowledge of the vegetation of the island has been much extended and many novelties added by the constant explorations of the late Dr. Harland, Mr. Wilford (a collector sent out from Kew) and Dr. Hance now Vice Consul in Whampoa.\n\nA flora of Hong Kong to comprise all the plants hitherto discovered is now in preparation by Mr. Bentham",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210726,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 77,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "60\n\n—\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\nand it is to be got through the Press early in the issuing year. It will form one of the series of Floras of the British Colonies published under the sanction of H.M. Government and the general superintendence of Sir W.J. Hooker.\n\nFurther, and perhaps of more relevance in getting the gardens established, it is boldly stated in answer to Query no. 4 of June 28th 1860 \"No Botanical Garden exists in the colony\".\n\nThus although the scheme to establish a public Botanical Garden had been sanctioned by the Secretary of State in 1856, the proposal was held in limbo until Nov 30th 1861 when a sum of £269..10..6 was approved \"for the formation of Public Gardens”. A further sum of £4,371..2..6 was approved by the Governor, Hercules Robinson who explained the justification for such a large sum on the difficult topography of the chosen site.\n\n\"The amount proposed to be expended in this service is large, but the only ground available for a Public Garden in a suitable locality is situated on such a steep incline as to call for very special arrangements for carrying off the water from the hills. Drainage and a boundary wall constitute the chief items of the Estimate\".\n\nIt is obvious that Governor Robinson considered the formation of a public garden both an added attraction to the rapidly expanding city and, in addition, well within the financial resources of the Colony. He continues:\n\n\"I am of opinion that a portion of the large surplus revenue at present in hand, cannot be better expended than in carrying out this undertaking, which will contribute to the embellishment of the City of Victoria and the health and enjoyment of its inhabitants.”\n\nThe Duke of Newcastle's scribbled note appended to Robinson's submission on its arrival in London states:",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210728,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 79,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "62\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\nThe site referred to is the area of rising ground to the south of the site occupied by the present Government House and on a site formerly occupied by the Record Office on \"Government Hill\" which had served as a temporary Government House from 1841 to 1842.\n\nOn Oct 7th in 1861 Mr. Th. Donaldson was appointed Curator of the Public Gardens and the gardens were thrown open to the public under certain regulations on August 6th 1864. In October of that year the military band began giving promenade concerts in the gardens at stated intervals. The establishment of the public gardens had obviously done much to instill among the European community a sense of both pride and achievement and this sense of well-being was reflected in the wide-scale level of planting in the colony and confirmed by Eitel (1895) who stated that:\n\n\"The increased attention, given to the cultivation of trees along the public roads and around European dwellings on the hill side, had already done very much to displace the pristine barrenness of the site on which the city was built by patches of shrubbery.\"\n\nIn the copious correspondence between Hongkong and London, the gardens were referred to either as a Botanical Garden (as when the Surveyor General ordered seeds for it from a Mr. Veitch of Chelsea in 1861) or as a Public Garden and was under the auspices of the Surveyor General and a Garden Committee.\n\nIn 1871 Charles Ford was appointed as the first Superintendent of Gardens and in his first letter back to Dr. Hooker of Kew after his arrival, he reported:\n\n\"The Public Gardens are in a very fair order and well stocked with plants as regards quantity, but we require greater variety.\n\n\"Very few of the plants are labelled and I believe, no catalogue of them has been drawn up. We have not any Orchids nor Ferns except those indigenous to the Island. The plants which have been introduced are chief-",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210730,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 81,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "64\n\nly Australian and Japanese, some also from India.”\n\nIn the first annual report (31/12/1872) Mr. Ford reported that:\n\n\"It is to be regretted that, owing to the want of skilled European assistance, a portion of these Gardens could not be reserved for strictly botanical purposes, and for the formation of a collection of plants peculiar to China, and thus make the Gardens of use to those scientific visitors who make HK a place of call, as well as students who reside in the Colony.”\n\nThe importance of the Hongkong Botanic Gardens as a repository of plants with commercial value to the area had already been stressed by Dr. Hooker in his report to the Kew Royal Botanical Garden in 1871 when he referred to them:\n\nas a means of introducing a multitude of valuable vegetable products which are described by travellers in China, but which are totally unknown in Europe.\"\n\nIn the 1871 report Ford also refers to the construction of a \"chunamed basin\" 18 ft in diameter and 3 ft deep for the growth of a specimen of Victoria regia but there is no further mention of this eye-catching plant in any further reports. This might possibly indicate its inability to grow under Hong Kong's rather unique climate conditions. The report continues:\n\n\"The trees planted consisted chiefly of Banyans, India-rubber trees, Bamboos, Whampee, Litchi, Rose Apple (Jambosa vulgaris) and Longan which were obtained from Nurseries at Canton. A quantity of Chinese Fir Trees (Pinus sinensis) have been raised from seeds for the purpose of planting in the higher and more exposed parts of hills where other trees do not thrive. A quantity of the same kind of seeds have again been collected together with a larger quantity of Casuarina seeds, which have been matured on trees originally raised, I believe, from seeds received from the Mel-",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210731,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 82,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "65\n\nBourne Royal Botanical Gardens. The Casuarinas grow moderately well on this island and are not much damaged by strong winds, which is the most important quality requisite for trees to possess in this part of the world where typhoons are so prevalent and the exposure is so great.\n\nThe problem of typhoon damage to the Botanic Gardens was stressed again by Ford in 1874 when he wrote to Dr. Hooker at Kew:\n\n\"I am afraid we should never be able to make an effective combination and groups of shrubs etc. to form a really attractive garden or landscape scenery on account of the typhoons which break and destroy subjects in such a frightful way as to entirely nullify our efforts in that direction, breaking up the picture, which we try to produce, into fragments only.\"\n\nIn 1876, in his second report to Kew, Mr. Ford outlined how the planting programme had been extended:\n\n\"The cultivation of trees has been extended in a new direction, the rearing and planting of Pinus sinensis on the hills. Before this was done, trees were only planted along the streets and roads for shade; but now we annually plant many thousands on hills above and surrounding the town. This tree is the one which has been found, by experience, to thrive the best of all yet tried on exposed situations; in fact, but few or none of these attempted (and experiments with other species have been made every year) will thrive at all on the higher grounds. Exposure and the hardness of soil prevent trees growing. All the trees experimented with on hills thrive well in made and sheltered ground in the gardens.\"\n\nIn an appendix to the 1876 report, note is made of the introduction of a new species of tree from Australia and the growth characteristics of a common southern Chinese species which was used widely.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210732,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 83,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "66\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\nin future planting programmes:\n\nNative Country Remarks\n\nBotanical Name\n\nTristanea conferta Australia\n\nCeltis sinensis Hong Kong\n\nFrom 100 to 150 ft. high... etc. grows very rapidly and well in H.K.\n\nA fine tree which grows well and can be propagated readily from seed which is produced in abundance.\n\nMany trees were planted on the roadsides 2 years ago which have grown very rapidly. Two rows bordering the side of the Peak Road would also have done well if they had been attended to in pruning during this and last year.\n\nDespite the prevalence and destructive power of typhoons Mr. Ford was able to report in 1879:\n\n\"The general appearance of the Gardens has been decidedly in advance of previous years. The collection of Cacti continues to thrive well. On the sides of the walk next to the Fountain Terrace the trees of Grevilea robusta now form a very effective avenue. The trees were planted when they were one year old, in 1876 and they are now about thirty feet high. Near the Fernery in the Old Garden a collection of Orchids indigenous to Hong Kong has been made. Many of the more beautiful and interesting plants of this Colony have been introduced to the Gardens and I am now continuing this work.... The collection of coniferous trees in the New Garden has been partly rearranged... the Palms have quite filled the ground, and excepting very dwarf kinds, no",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210733,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 84,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "67\n\nmore can be planted. . . . The Fernery in Glenealy Ravine in the New Garden, which was made about five years since, has succeeded admirably.\n\nThe administration of the gardens also became independent of the Survey Department and emerged as the Botanical Department.\n\nMr. Ford also botanised widely in the area and started a collection of plant specimens as soon as he arrived in Hong Kong. The Herbarium was formally established in 1878 and in 1881 he started a series of botanical expeditions to southern China for the purpose of obtaining more knowledge of its then little known flora, especially the economic plants.\n\n\"The living plants introduced to cultivation by this expedition contain many things of very much interest which will be valuable acquisitions to (the) gardens.\"\n\nIn addition to his duties in the Botanic Gardens, Ford also had a much wider outlook on the flora of Hong Kong and in a letter to T. Thistleton-Dyer F.R.S. (dated 16/8/81) he illustrates his interest in the conservation of the natural flora on the hillsides:\n\n\"From the commencement of this year I have had two 'Forest Guards' at work whose special duty is to patrol the Island and prevent wanton destruction of trees and shrubs by grass cutters and other people. They are doing excellent service and I believe that we shall in consequence, get many more new plants. There are many shrubs growing on the hills which are unknown to me, and which, I believe have never been found in flower because of their having been so frequently cut down that they could not attain sufficient size to flower, but which, now that they are being preserved, will be able to flower.\"\n\nIn his report to Kew 1882 Ford estimated that about one-tenth of Hong Kong (including the New Territories, Lantao and Lamma islands) was planted. \"There might be about 25,000,000 trees",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210739,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 90,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "73\n\nassistant, Mr. S.T. Dunn, who was in turn succeeded by his assistant, Mr. W.T. Tutcher in 1910. Both Dunn and Tutcher carried out extensive botanical work and were co-authors of \"The Flora of Kwangtung and Hong Kong\". Tutcher wrote \"Gardening for Hong Kong\" which served as a useful manual for horticulturists unfamiliar with the peculiar seasonal conditions of Hong Kong. They also organized repair and maintenance work to the buildings of the Botanic Gardens and Tutcher introduced electric lighting into the Gardens in 1913 for evening functions.\n\nMr. H. Green succeeded Mr. Tutcher in 1919. He arranged the layout of some of the flower-beds and relaid the old paths and channels with cement granite. A granite memorial in the shape of a 'Pai Lau' was erected in 1928 at the top of the main entrance steps on the old Garden in memory of the Chinese in the service of the British Government who died during the Great War 1914-1918. Then in 1931 the lower portion of the Gardens was taken over by the Public Works Department for the construction of a service reservoir. Work was completed in 1933 and the area was recovered with black soil, turfed and reopened to the public.\n\nMr. Green retired in 1937 and the vacant post was taken up by Mr. F. Flippance after a series of quick changes of appointments. By this time the activities of the Department had expanded so much that forestry in fact accounted for 65 to 70% of its work, the rest being botanical, gardening, and agricultural. In fact, afforestation work on the hills was carried out by the Gardens Department as early as 1876 but it was not until 1880 that planting on any large scale was undertaken and the Department had since been renamed the Botanic and Afforestation Department. The Botanic Gardens remained in good condition until the Second World War broke out.\n\nDuring the Second World War the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong resulted in extensive structural damage to the Botanic Gardens the site of which was badly cut up to provide earthworks for gun emplacements and defensive trenches. Much of the shrubbery was destroyed as were a number of the larger trees; additionally the surrounding railings and gates were removed to provide ease of access to military personnel and equipment. There are no\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210740,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 91,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "74\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\nrecords to indicate that the Botanic Gardens were preserved as had been the case at Singapore where a senior Japanese officer took over the role of Director and where botanical research continued throughout the occupation.\n\nFollowing the surrender of the Japanese military administration a rapid rehabilitation scheme was established whereby rubbish was removed from the garden site and serious attempts were made to re-establish the garden to its former appearance. In 1946 the internal restructuring of various Hong Kong Government departments resulted in the division of the original Botanical and Forestry departments into a Forestry Department and a separate Gardens Department.\n\nAt this stage there was no superintendent with overall supervision of the gardens but in 1947 Fr. T.F. Ryan, S.J. was appointed Acting Superintendent. He reported to Government in that year that:\n\n\"Returfing had to be done on a large scale, so as the replanting of flowering shrubs and trees. The gradual return of the Gardens to something approaching its pre-war appearance won favourable comments on many occasions.”\n\nMr. R.E. Dean assumed the post of Superintendent of Gardens in January 1948 and work continued on the restoration of the Gardens. The entrance gates and railings around the grounds were re-erected. Forty granite garden seats were replaced. The extensive earth mounds formed by the Japanese were cleared and the formal layout of garden beds enhanced the appearance of the Gardens. In 1949 the superstructure of the Plant and Fern House was completed, the Aviary restored in 1951 and the Mammal House restored in 1953.\n\nThe Herbarium collection, which had been shipped to Penang prior to the Japanese Occupation in 1940, was sent to the Singapore Botanical Garden by the Japanese for safe keeping. The collection was recalled to Hong Kong from Singapore in 1948 and the 40,000 specimens were first housed in the Supper Room of Gov-",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213387,
        "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-1994",
        "page_number": 209,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "197\n\nClarke, Samuel R. Among the Fathers in South West China, London China Inland Mission, 1911 (Tarpett Reprint Cifeng-wen Publishing)\n\nCoates, Austin, China Races, Hong Kong. Oxford University Press, 1983\n\nCochran, Sherman, Big Business in China. Sino-foreign Rivalry in the Cigarette Industry, 1890-1940, Cambridge (Mass). Harvard University Press, 1980\n\nCochran, Sherman, and Winston Hsieh, eds. One Day in China, May 21, 1936, New Haven Yale University Press, 1983\n\nCohen, Paul, Christian Missions and Their Impact to 1900, in Cambridge History of China 10, Part I, 543-90\n\n— China and Christianity, the Missionary Movement and the Growth of Chinese Antiforeignism, 1860-1870, Cambridge (Mass). Harvard University Press, 1963\n\nCohen, Warren I, The Chinese Connection. Roger S Greene, Thomas W Lamont, George E Sokolsky and American-East Asian Relations, New York Columbia University Press, 1978\n\nCollins P M. Siberian Journey Down the Amur to the Pacific, 1856-1857, edited by Charles Vevier, Madison University of Wisconsin Press, 1962\n\nCollis, Maurice, Foreign Mud, London Faber and Faber, 1946\n\nCooper, Thomas Thornville, Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce in Pigtail and Petticoats, or An Overland Journey from China Towards India, London John Murray, 1871\n\nCorbett, Charles Hodge, Shantung Christian University (Cheeloo), New York United Board for Christian Colleges in China, 1955\n\nCox, E H M, Plant-Hunting in China. A History of Botanical Exploration in China and the Tibetan Marches, London Collins, 1945 (Hong Kong Reprint Oxford University Press)\n\nCravath, Paul Dreman, Letters Home from the South Sea Islands, China and Japan, 1934, Garden City printed at the Country Life Press, 1934\n\nThe Cree Journals, The Voyages of Edward H Cree. Surgeon RN as related in his private journals 1837-1856, Exeter English Webb and Bower, 1981 (published in the United States as Naval Surgeon)\n\nCressy, C B, China's Geographic Foundations, New York McGraw Hill, 1934\n\nCressy-Marcks, Violet Olivia, Journey Into China. New York Dutton. 1942 (Feb/938C)\n\nCronin, Vincent, The Wise Man from the West, London Hart Davis, 1955\n\nCrow, Carl, Handbook for China, Shanghai Kelly and Walsh. 1933 (Hong Kong Reprint: Oxford University Press)",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214114,
        "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-1997",
        "page_number": 182,
        "title": "RAS-1997",
        "content_text": "151\n\nfrom the Colonial Office, in London, for the setting up of a Botanical Garden. This garden, which still flourishes today, finally came into being in 1862.\n\nBut, skipping a hundred years to the Branch's second time around, quite a lot else has been achieved. For example, the RASHKB has built up a respectable library of books on Asia. This is on permanent loan to the Urban Council, at the City Hall, and members of the general public are welcome to refer to it. On the shelves of the RASHKB Collection one can find many old, valuable titles, such as: A Narrative of the British Embassy to China in the Years 1792, 1793 and 1794, by Aeneas Anderson (1795) (then in the service of Earl Macartney), and Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, by Captain Sir Edward Belcher RN (1843), in two volumes. Some books in the RAS Collection bear interesting chops (stamps), such as from the old Canton Reading Room and the South China Morning Post's pre-World War II Library.\n\nIn addition RASHKB Archives, including files, photographs and papers, are deposited with the Government Public Records Office (PRO). Other Branch possessions are on long-term loan to the Hong Kong University. These include the F.A. Nixon, Buddhist, Tang Dynasty Scroll and the 38 M.A. McMullen Bills of Lading, relating to shipments in China from 1825-73. Also held by the University on behalf of the RASHKB are microfilms of 1847-59 Branch procedures and the Nixon Photographs of 991 bronze Nestorian crosses.\n\nAlthough the Society is basically apolitical, and occasionally thought of as being pro-establishment, it has not been afraid to take up cudgels when it felt there was a cause. As examples a letter was sent, in May 1995, to the Hong Kong Government pressing for the retention of the spirit hall and historical and architectural artefacts when the old Nga Tsin Wai Walled Village, in East Kowloon, is demolished.\n\nAlso, because of some government intransigence at the time, a small group of RASHKB members appeared twice before a Legislative Council committee to press for a properly established Public Records Office. When a purpose-designed, reasonably accessible, PRO opened in June 1997 at Kwun Tong, many members liked to think the RAS played a part in this successful outcome.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215532,
        "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-2001",
        "page_number": 309,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "259\n\n2. Hong Kong No.2A, piece of Botanical and Forestry Department ground at the junction of Kennedy Road and Garden Road 163\n\n3. Hong Kong No.2B, piece of Botanical and Forestry Department ground at junction of Upper Albert Road and Albany Road, 164\n\n4. Old Government Civil Hospital Site 165 (2,631), open space behind the Old Government Civil Hospital. 166\n\n5. Queen Mary Hospital Site (101), piece of ground on the east side of Pokfulam Road near the Maison de Nazareth. 167\n\n6. Aberdeen Site (98), on the north side of Island Road, 100 yards from the Aberdeen Industrial School, 169\n\n7. Island Road, 170 Shaukiwan Site (363), slopes on side of Island Road near its junction with Shaukiwan Road. 171\n\nFigures in bracket show the number of grave exhumations for reburial between April 1948 and March 1949. 172 The remains in these emergency cemeteries were reburied in the New Kowloon Cemetery No.8 (Diamond Hill Urn Cemetery).\n\nEarly Post-War Cemeteries\n\nThe first cemetery authorized after the Second World War in 1947 was a military cemetery for the burial of the servicemen who had died in the war. It was initially known as the 'Sai Wan Military Cemetery,' 173 which contained about 5.71 acres, situated East of Chai Wan Cemetery 174 and the extension thereof and to the North of the road serving Sai Wan and Cape Collinson in the Colony of Hong Kong.' 175\n\nThis was followed by a 'Prisons Cemetery' in the same year, which was 'being an enclosure of about 5,000 square feet lying 250 yards to the South of St. Stephen's College Preparatory School Building at Stanley,' 176\n\nIt was recorded that as early as 1940, the government had already intended to transfer the government cemeteries for Chinese from the urban area to new sites in the New Territories. However, due to the...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 215632,
        "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-2001",
        "page_number": 409,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "360\n\nAlthough nothing to do with oriental planting, I think we all hugely enjoyed the Productive Gardens, from the story of the gardeners' tools of 1914 still found hanging in ruined sheds, to seeing a working Pineapple House (heated to 120F with rotting manure, through honeycomb brickwork walls) and the last original Paxton vinehouse. Every detail was thought through by the 19th century gardeners, from the use of cobble drains taking water to a central cistern, to the “beavertail” glass panes in the greenhouses, which direct the water away from the wooden frames. Gardening was not just art and a spade: it was science and engineering too, and only 100 years later we are scrambling to rescue that knowledge.\n\nAt Pine Lodge we had the pleasure of being guided by co-owner Raymond Clemo. Pine Lodge is unusual in that it is a much more recently created garden. In the mid-1970s, the Clemos were persuaded to open their then much smaller garden for a day, to raise funds for a hospice. More than 2,000 people turned up, and the garden has been expanding and opening to the public ever since. The Clemos are still buying land, and adding to the garden, the most recent addition being a field now planted as an arboretum. Its recent creation has not changed the tradition of oriental connections: 20 years ago Clemo saw an advertisement placed in the RHS magazine by a young man who wanted to go plant collecting in the Himalayas, and sent him a cheque. Pine Lodge now houses many of Chris Chadwell's introductions, and the relationship between Cornwall and the plant hunters continues. Students have now come to work at the gardens, including several from Japan, who have helped Clemo to create a replica of a traditional garden from Kyoto. Seeds were also contributed by colleagues at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens.\n\nOne of the most enjoyable aspects of Pine Lodge is its intimacy: it started small, and its most mature areas are the original densely planted mixed borders of shrubs, bulbs, and perennials, and its ponds and other water features, rather than its woodland gardens of huge rhododendrons, conifers, etc. Although the planting may be more exotic than most, its style is more familiar, and closer to something those of us with small gardens can aim for.\n\nThe Eden Project was a very different experience. Eden clearly has a manifesto, which is to educate, and our guide was a true evangelist.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215634,
        "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-2001",
        "page_number": 411,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "362\n\nwhich once made up Gondwanaland, with tree-ferns massing in the stream bed. It seems that the entire world is coming eventually to Cornwall.\n\nTom's in-depth knowledge of the flora of western China in particular was illuminating for us. He explained that whereas much emphasis is put in the protection of rainforests internationally, in fact small \"islands\" of temperate conditions and vegetation within the tropics, where unique species exist, are also vulnerable: a single fire, for instance, could break the growth cycle for trees. Collection of seed is of great importance, but Chinese taxonomy is underfunded (compared to botanical research for medical purposes) and collection for propagation abroad is illegal according to CITES. Another of his legacies to the future will be a naturalistically planted Far Eastern temperate woodland, with acers, viburnums, sorbus, gordonia, and the rare Taiwania.\n\nTom also delighted and surprised the group by being able to take us to see a specimen of the camellia named after HK Governor Alexander Grantham, and another of Camellia hongkongensis, plus a Hogplum (Choerospondias), which he said grows around reservoirs in Hong Kong. Full marks for being the only garden visited to have a direct Hong Kong connection, and to Tom for his thoughtfulness in pointing it out.\n\nAmong great gardens, that of Caerhays Castle is one of the greatest, particularly for oriental plants. The gardens are set spectacularly on a hillside cupped around the castle, with their back turned to the little beach and bay nearby and the sea winds, and are filled with some of the oldest specimens of rhododendrons, magnolias and camellias in England. The architect of the gardens was John Charles Williams, “one of the towering figures of the Edwardian age” (M. Campbell-Culver). By the time he died in 1939, he had the best collection of rhododendrons in the country, and he had been responsible for crossing for the first time the two most important types of camellia, C. japonica (from Japan) and C. saluenensis. The latter had been discovered by George Forrest in the early part of the 20th century in the Salween area of China, and Williams was an early recipient of seed. The resulting hybrids, C. x williamsii, are now some of the most highly regarded of all, being hardy, profusely flowering, and tidily shedding their dead blooms. (The original",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]