[ { "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": 204264, "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": 32, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nCamellia granthamiana Sealy\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204265, "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": 33, "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\n29\n\nCamellia granthamiana with waxy white flowers and golden stamens. Both Camellias are evergreen trees twenty to sixty feet high, growing in a shady and thickly wooded habitat and bearing beautiful shiny bluish green foliage. Camellia hongkongensis was discovered in 1849 by Lt. Col. Eyre. There are many trees growing naturally on Hong Kong Island on Victoria Peak and the hillsides on the south of the Island. Camellia granthamiana was discovered accidentally by Mr. C. P. Lau, a forester at Shing Mun, New Territories, Kowloon, 2,000 feet above sea level, as recently as October, 1955. That this plant was a species new to science was almost unbelievable. Mr. Robert Sealy of Kew identified and described it early in 1956, and the species was named after Sir Alexander Grantham to commemorate his governorship at the time, and his interest in things botanical. Up to date, only one tree about twenty feet high has been found, in spite of thorough combing of the neighbouring hillsides for a considerable period. Attempts have been made to germinate the seeds into seedlings and to propagate from cuttings but the young plants have failed to survive in Hong Kong. However, cuttings sent to America and Kew in 1956 bloomed for the first time in 1959. The blooms are outstanding because of their exceptionally large size, the largest known in the genus Camellia, attaining a diameter of 12 to 15 cm. The waxy white flowers, with their bright golden centres, are each held at the base by overlapping greyish blue bracts and sepals. These blooms, enhanced by the dark green background of the foliage, indeed exhibit a beauty of distinction. This discovery has aroused wide interest among Camellia lovers, and Hong Kong, the land of its native home, has thus botanically added to its fame.", "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": 204569, "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": 50, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "Camellia hongkongensis, Seem,\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": 204575, "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": 56, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "# FLOWERS OF HONG KONG\n\n45\n\nCAMELLIA HONGKONGENSIS, SEEM. ***\n\nFamily: Theaceae (Ternstroemiaceae)\n\nCommon names: Red Camellia\n\nRed Hong Kong Camellia\n\nThe genus Camellia is wholly native to south east Asia with the greatest concentration in abundance and in the number of species in western and southern China. Kwangtung and Hong Kong have been known to have 16 species, 5 of which are indigenous, being only known from Hong Kong. Camellia hongkongensis, with its native home on Hong Kong island, in a spinney, off a beaten track near Peel Rise, was discovered in 1849 by Colonel J. Eyre, R.A. and was first described in 1853, by Dr. Berthold Seemann.\n\nThis Camellia is the only local native species with crimson flowers. The combination of the crimson petals, the bright golden anthers, held together below by a brown involucral perule of overlapping bracts and sepals against a background of coriaceous, glossy dark green foliage is strikingly oriental. The numerous stamens of golden anthers and crimson filaments are fused to the petals and to each other, forming a fleshy rim at the base. The gynoecium G(3) consists of a tiny hairy ovary and three glabrous free styles. After blooming, the corolla and androecium are completely shed, leaving the gynoecia, protected by the persistent perules, to develop into large semi-globose brown woody capsular fruits, taking twelve months to mature. Each dehisces explosively but irregularly into three spreading valves which remain attached at the base, dispersing the large seeds and exposing the erect axis (columella) at the centre. The seeds are viable only for a short time and must be sown immediately after dehiscence.\n\nThe evergreen trees are tall and slender but much branched, reaching up to 30-40 feet. Blooming time is from December to March when blooms in Hong Kong are rare and precious and the demand for red flowers—a happy colour—is great. Much has been written about this Hong Kong Camellia but many local residents are not acquainted with its appearance nor its existence. It is time to introduce it into cultivation into our gardens and our courtyards. We, in Hong Kong, should be justly proud of producing this special Camellia hongkongensis.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204576, "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": 57, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "46\n\nBEK-TO CHIU\n\nTUTCHERIA SPECTABILIS (CHAMP.) DUNN.\n\nFamily: Theaceae 山茶科\n\nA\n\n榻捷本\n\nTutcheria is a comparatively new genus, created in 1908 by Mr. Dunn, Superintendent of Gardens and Forestry Department, in honour of his assistant, Mr. W. J. Tutcher who was the first to draw attention to its distinctive characters. The most important of all was the structure of the fruit and seeds. The capsular fruit, on ripening, splits into four, five or six valves which are completely deciduous, dispersing the laterally compressed or angular seeds, two and five in each loculus. The columella alone is left on the persistent perules.\n\nBecause the blooms are Camellia-like, before 1908, the plant was referred to as Camellia spectabilis, Champion and its significance of being indigenous to Hong Kong was overlooked. There is a medium size tree reaching up to 40 feet, with a spreading crown of handsome glossy evergreen leaves, in the upper part of the Old Botanical Gardens. This is well worth a visit, especially in May and June when the blooms are in season.\n\nThe showy white cup-shaped flowers, about 4 inches in diameter, are Camellia-like, with tangerine orange anthers that form a mass at the centre and are slightly fragrant. The white petals are tinged yellowish and greenish at the tips and the outer surfaces are each traversed by a stripe of a light golden sheen. The perules are pale green with a golden sheen and the single stout style, apically dividing into three to six short erect arms, is apple green. The flowers, almost sessile, arise singly from the axils of the upper leaves and appear stately and distinctive.\n\nThe capsules are large, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, subglobose and woody, covered with a soft green pubescens. It takes six months to ripen. The seeds are again viable for a short time.\n\nOther species of this genus have been recorded from S. China, Formosa and the Liuchiu Islands but the species spectabilis is native to Hong Kong and has been introduced into Great Britain for cultivation.\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204577, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "FLOWERS OF HONG KONG\n\n47\n\nGORDONIA AXILLARIS (ROXB.) DIETR.\n\nFamily: Theaceae ✯✯\n\nCommon names: Mountain tea-flower\n\nMountain or Wild Camellia\n\n山 茶 花\n\nThis hardy evergreen shrub or small tree with its many branches bears white camellia-like flowers, and is very common on the hillsides of Hong Kong and the New Territories. It is a tropical or subtropical plant and this species has been found in South China, Formosa and Indo-China.\n\nThe showy white flowers, 3-4 inches in diameter, bloom fully from October to March. The five spreading white petals are notched with slightly wavy margins, displaying a golden mass of anthers at the centre and held at the base by a green perule of bracts and sepals. The flowers, almost sessile, arise singly or in cluster of three, from the axils of the upper leaves. Each flower lasts for one day only, when the corolla together with the numerous stamens fused at the base, are shed from the trees. The perules persist, subtending the developing woody, oblong elliptical capsule, one inch long, green when young but becoming dark brown when mature, taking six months to ripen. Each dehisces loculicidally from the apex to nearly the base, into five narrow pointed valves, splitting away from the erect columella at the centre and liberating many small seeds, each apically winged and resembles the winged seeds of Pinus.\n\nThe plant was originally named, Camellia axillaris (Kor.) Roxb. but has been separated and transferred to the genus Gordonia by the distinctive characters of the capsule, the loculi-cidal dehiscence from the apex and the winged seeds.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204578, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "48\n\nBEK-TO CHIU\n\nRHODOLEIA CHAMPIONI, HOOK #\n\n吊鐘花\n\nFamily: Hamamelidaceae ### 金縷梅科\n\nCommon name: King of Hanging Bells\n\nHooker, who described Rhodoleia from Hong Kong named it championi to commemorate Col. J. G. Champion who was the first to collect this plant while stationed here 1847-1850, as an ensign in the 95th Regiment. Champion wrote on his record “the handsomest of Hong Kong's flowering plants\". Hance in 1870 described the flowers as \"of extreme beauty and rarity\". Justifiable statements to all who are acquainted with the flowers of this plant. Indeed the colour combination of the flowers is uniquely striking and perhaps breathtakingly oriental. The involucre of bracts is of a pale yellow, gold, pink and russet brown; the petals of rose-carmine and the stamens, black. Besides its beauty, the fact that the plant is indigenous and only found on Hong Kong island, is worthy of note.\n\nBentham described the flowers as having \"the appearance of a semi-double Camellia\". This is so and they particularly resemble Camellia hongkongensis. The apparent flowers are each composed of a cluster of five flowers, aggregated compactly on a recurved peduncle (and hence \"hanging\" or pendulous) at the axil of the upper leaves of the branches, with the petals of the flowers arranged at the circumference, held at the base by an involucre of overlapping bracts. This unit is in fact an inflorescence of the capitulum type, comparable with that of a chrysanthemum,\n\nThe shrubs or small trees, reaching up to 20 feet high, are evergreens, bearing coriaceous dark green leaves with a bluish bloom on the upper surfaces. The flowers start to bloom from January to March, being at their best in February, the Chinese New Year time. The fruits are woody composite capsules, maturing at the end of six months, when each dehisces both loculicidally and septicidally, setting free many small winged seeds.\n\nTrees of Rhodoleia championi that bloom regularly, are to be found in the New Botanical Gardens, near the Pavilion and in a sheltered valley in Little Hong Kong, off Shouson Hill.\n\nThe genus Rhodoleia has two other species: one from China and the other from Java and Sumatra.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205199, "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-1966", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\ndoing of proper things at the proper time.\n\n149\n\nOn the lighter side, and perhaps this is the main intention of the author, we are treated to a series of ‘delights'. A liberal dose of humour is always injected into each and every chapter. The author recollects, for example, and perhaps not without some pleasure, in Nigeria, how, one morning, the train in which he was travelling suddenly stopped in the dead of nowhere so that he, then acting-Governor, could have a leisurely breakfast without being jostled about. In the same breath, we can say that the book is very 'domestic'. The description of family life, in very pleasant and readable prose, is ever-present. We are privileged to know how Mrs. Grantham goes about re-decorating residences, how they loved and adored their cats and dogs but inevitably always have to part with them; and how they adored flowers and plants and how one species, found in Hong Kong, was named Camellia Granthamiana. Such pleasant reminiscences, which are very seldom found in other books, would greatly interest the reader, I trust.\n\nUniversity of Hong Kong\n\nWILLIAM WAUNG\n\nSEALS OF CHINESE PAINTERS AND COLLECTORS OF THE MING AND CH'ING PERIOD, Victoria Contag and Wang Chi-ch'ien. Hong Kong University Press, 1966. 726 pages. HK$200.00.\n\nThe re-issuance of this valuable and useful work in a revised and supplemented edition is a welcome event, if not to a very large public, at least to a growing number of appreciative individuals with more than passing interest in Chinese seals and painting. The original 1940 edition which contained upwards of 9,000 seal facsimiles, taken from authentic paintings in China by means of a finger-print camera, has for long been generally unavailable except for occasional rare copies at prohibitive prices. This edition adds a supplement containing many new seals copied from American private and public collections as well as additional information gathered in the intervening three decades.\n\nThe title is somewhat misleading, though in an easily forgivable way, for while the bulk of reproduced seals are from the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, there are also included a number from the Sung and Yuan periods as well.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208109, "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-1977", "page_number": 148, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "132 \n\nW. J. HINTON \n\nexposed side and stretches along the sheltered bay, while the wind whistles over the roofs of the house to fill the sails of the junks and sampans in the harbour. \n\nThe ridge is more or less covered with drifts of coarse quartz crystals from the two beaches but the decomposed granite of which it is made bears fresh water and several wells are sunk there. The \"bells\" of the dumbell are much eroded masses of decomposed granite thickly strewn with massive black boulders, and patched with occasional slopes of bare rock on which huge fragments are balanced precariously. Where dykes and bands of more soluble or softer rock have been the hills are deeply trenched, and the narrow glens end in little coves with beaches of coarse quartz sand. Little watercourses make the bottoms of the glens swampy, where they have not been cleared, but in most there are deep pits dug to trap the water, and channels to conserve the flow. There is not enough water to cultivate rice and in the dry season every drop must be saved in the pits, and mingled there with manure to be carried in watering cans and sprayed over the carrots and cabbages in the midst of clouds of flies. \n\nNatural vegetation is sparse on the whole. The sheltered parts of the glens bear thin woods of China pine, good only for fire-wood, and this has been cut for that purpose in most of the valleys. It is now preserved and planted by the Colonial Government. On the higher slopes wild guava and various myrtles and camellias are the most conspicuous shrubs. There is a coarse tufted grass partly covering the harsh soil, and affording fodder and fuel. \n\nIn the glens are bamboos near the pools and watercourses, and flowering trees like the Persian Lilac. Here in spring a breath of sweetness meets the visitors sickened by the noisome fluid for ever being poured on the little terraces. \n\nNear the houses are groves of fruit trees, papayas, oranges or bananas. \n\nThe climate is of the usual South China type. That is to say rather like Florida. A hot summer with a weak Southerly monsoon, on which fierce typhoons come riding at intervals, advancing no faster than a ship can steam, but whirling madly at a velocity of over a hundred miles an hour. Woe to the junks who do not get the news in time of their approach to run for shelter!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208140, "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-1977", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n163 \n\nneat grave on the far side of the burnt-out area; where the fire may have started. \n\nh) The cutting beside Tai Mo Shan Road (about 100 metres up hill from the car park) shows the parent rock quite well. The soils in this region, and from here to the summit, are red-yellow podzols. \n\ni) Small mammals that have been identified from the adjacent countryside in recent years include: Paguma larvata (masked palm civet or 果子狸), Melogale moschata (ferret-badger or 獾) and Rattus rattus sladeni (Sladen's roof rat or 司氏屋顶鼠(田鼠)). \n\n3. Stop B-car park near summit (altitude ca 700 m.) \n\nOn many days of the year, as on the day of the RAS visit, this site is covered with drifting cloud or mist which undoubtedly increases the effective precipitation. The vegetation here is a grassland, probably maintained by fire and lack of seed etc. of other life forms. However, improvement is feasible, as may be seen from the reasonable growth of planted trees. \n\na) Extensive views can be obtained from this site: see inset on the sketch map. In order to see Deep Bay (后海灣) it is necessary to walk ca 100 m. down the road & on to the knoll beyond the signals hut. \n\nb) To the west of Tsing Yi Island can be seen the badly eroded hills surrounding the Tai Lam Chung (大欖涌) reservoir. These hills are composed of granite of several kinds. Granite weathers much more readily than the volcanic rock of which Tai Mo Shan is composed, so that the hills are denuded of vegetation and are pale brown in color. \n\nc) The sloping terraces on the far hillside and close beside this car park are intriguing because their original purpose is seemingly unknown. However, recent investigation suggests they were concerned with control of water flow, either retention of water or control of run-off; a record of these terraces is being prepared for submission to the JHKBRAS. Tea bushes (Camellia sinensis) were formerly cultivated on Tai Mo Shan and the sloping terraces", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210324, "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-1984", "page_number": 295, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "274\n\nP.H. HASE, J.W. HAYES AND K.C. IU\n\naround Lantau Peak. Because of its properties, it has traditionally been collected by local villagers to make \"tea\". Normally, the fresh or dried leaves are boiled in water, and sugar added if necessary. Apart from local consumption, the leaves are dried for sale in the herbalists' shops at Tai O. Over the years, the plant has been established as a local product of Lantau Island. Hawkers doing business in front of the Po Lin Monastery on Ngong Ping Plateau are also \"cashing in\" on the trade by bottling the drink for sale to visitors. Because of the thirst-quenching properties and good \"cooling effect\", the drinks are particularly welcomed by hikers. However, most of the dried leaves for sale there nowadays are in fact imported from Ting Wu and Lo Fu Mountains (#LI, #) in Guangdong Province. The price ranges from $5 to $12 per packet according to weight.\n\nThe popularity of the drink seems to be declining in recent years, particularly among young people who prefer ready-made soft drinks. This change has in fact helped to conserve the declining population of this plant species on Lantau Peak.\n\nNOTES\n\nMy (PHH) thanks to Mr. K.C. Ho, Assistant Curator, the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware for his assistance in preparing this Note, and to Mr. M. Cheung of the Visual Aids Section of the Hong Kong Museum of Art for taking the photographs.\n\nTea trees used for the production of \"Hill Tea\" in Mau Tso Ngam and elsewhere in the New Territories are plants of Camellia sinensis in common with tea bushes used elsewhere in China in the commercial production of tea. See Plate 33. (Note by K.C. Iu).\n\nPlate 34.\n\nPlate 35.\n\n5\n\nPlate 36.\n\n6 Plate 37.\n\n7 Plate 38.\n\n&\n\nThis method of preparing green tea is similar to that used in many other parts of China, and involves three steps, viz (a) pan firing, (b) rolling, and (c) roasting. The main purpose of pan firing is to inactivate the enzymes inside the tea leaves (these enzymes must remain active if fermented, rather than green tea, is being made). Rolling releases the tea juices which are considered to be the essence of the tea. The constituents of the juices will stick to the surface of the tea leaves after the final roasting process. Roasting aims to stabilise the process, by baking the leaves to dryness to facilitate storage (Note by K.C. Ho).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210326, "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-1984", "page_number": 297, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "276\n\nP.H. HASE, J.W. HAYES AND K.C. IU\n\n33. Tea Tree (Camellia sinensis) (Photograph courtesy of AFD)\n\n34. Tea being picked near Mau Tso Ngam Village", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213580, "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-1995", "page_number": 176, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "146\n\nto get it planted. Another great difficulty was to find forest guards who would do their job: a former A.D.O, North once minuted 'Where forest guards abound, there do abuses much more abound!'.\n\nAlso according to Schofield (1983), pineapples were grown on the hillsides, \"nearly always under pine trees; these help to shade the plants and hold the soil together, otherwise the heavy summer rains would wash it all off and make the hillside a desert. The plants last seven to nine years.\" Other users of hillsides were noted by Hayes (1977), “On Tai Mo Shan as on other hillsides, there are the collectors of the plants and herbs that form so essential a part of Chinese medicine; and those who trap birds, snakes and wild creatures, or comb the mountain streams and pools for items that serve the same medicinal purposes. These they sell to shops or individuals, or consume at home. These persons are usually outsiders in a skilled line rather than local villagers, although these can also be found carrying home plants and leafy branches for use at home in the bath, to soothe or invigorate the body. The collectors include the springtime pluckers of wild tea bushes, high up on the mountain, for, as mentioned briefly in the gazetteer it is famous for tea, producing a favoured type of green tea. Besides the cultivators of distant upland padi fields, village users of the mountain include boys tending draught cattle which rove across its slopes when not at work: and, most distinctive of all, the village grass-cutters, women as a rule, looking from a distance, as Heywood described them just before the war, 'like miniature haystacks wandering on the mountainside'.”\n\nTea cultivation took place on even the highest hills. The Xin An Gazetteer of 1688 refers to tea cultivation on Tai Mo Shan, which was terraced to near the summit to produce the famous green \"cloud and mist tea\", and on Castle Peak and Lantau Peak. Former tea terraces can be seen on other mountain sides in the New Territories and on Lantau, so that human impact on the native vegetation was not confined to the lowlands. The age of the terraces is not known but they probably predate the Hakka settlements. An account of traditional tea growing in 1986 around the village of Mau Tso Ngam on Kowloon Peak, where tea trees, Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Ktze, are planted here and there on the edge of the hills near the village, is given by Hase et al. (1988).\n\nHill slopes were formerly used to grow heung trees, Aquilaria sinensis (Lour.) Gilg., the wood from which was ground to make", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214951, "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-2000", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "2\n\nthis paper to examine the role of tea in relation to opium and the resulting conflict. For tea, too, was an addiction of sorts, though perhaps without all the deleterious effects of opium.\n\nTea and the Chinese\n\nThe origin of tea is hidden in the remote mists of antiquity and more than enough theories of its discovery exist, mostly legendary. One date keeps cropping up - 2737BC - the legendary year that attempts to pinpoint the discovery, and attribute it to the Chinese emperor Shen Nung, the Divine Healer. Like many great discoveries, it was reputedly made by chance. Shen Nung, concerned about hygiene, used to boil his water for drinking. One day, while boiling water, a gust of wind blew leaves from a branch burning under the pot into the water. A marvellous aroma overtook Shen Nung. The branches came from a tree whose formal name today is Camellia sinensis.\n\nWhile other theories may claim a different origin (a Buddhist connection has been suggested), no one questions that tea as an industry began in China. Did the plant originate in China? Chinese sources claim that the tea tree is indigenous to Hunan Province, in Southwest China, where it grew wild in the mountains, where no other plant could grow. Cultivation of tea, however, appears to have begun around 350AD along the Yangtze River, in Sichuan Province, spreading to Yunnan and through southwest China into the central provinces. By the 5th century AD, tea had joined other products as a popular article of trade. It is not surprising, therefore, that tea's excellent qualities were known to the Chinese since early times, and that drinking tea as a pleasurable pastime had spread throughout the country. A brief attempt to tax tea, in 780 AD, was met with wide public outcry and had to be rescinded. This was also the year in which the first book on tea was published - an important milestone in its history. It was a monumental work in which the author Lu Yu of the Tang Dynasty dealt with tea in detail and from every possible aspect. One can only wonder at Lu Yu's deepest knowledge of the subject. His description of various shapes of different leaves verges on poetical. He described the code of conduct in relation to tea, from which the Japanese had probably derived their tea ceremony, and which in China had evolved into a social custom bordering on ritual. Some would assert that after the conquest of the Songs, at the end of the 13th century, the Tangs' romance of tea disappeared and tea", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215630, "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": 407, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "358\n\ncollecting that the flow greatly increased. These discoveries coincided with a period of great wealth in Britain, so that many owners of gardens could and did aspire to these exotics. Remove rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, peonies and magnolias alone from our great gardens and we would hardly recognise them, but almost all of these are relatively recent, and oriental, introductions.\n\nCornwall was chosen as a suitable home for many of these early exotics largely because of its mild and damp climate. Many of the plants were thought to be more tender than they have proved to be (camellias were initially grown almost exclusively in greenhouses, but the Japonicas are actually hardy), and as a result some have grown spectacularly better than they do in the wild, even out of hothouses. One has only to visit Heligan to see this: individual rhododendrons left in happy and unpruned seclusion for 70 years have grown to the size of small houses, with a diameter of up to 70 feet, and at Trewithen, Pieris formosa have reached 25 feet in height. At Caerhays, Rhododendron keysii (from Bhutan, 1851) produces its tiny red and yellow bell-like flowers for eight months of the year. When seed arrived from the collectors, its recipients often had no idea of the size of the eventual shrub or tree, so that planned planting was difficult and the original gardeners would be amazed to see the results now. It is hard to avoid statistics in these Cornish gardens: Tregrehan alone for instance has 15 trees which are regarded as the biggest and best specimens in the country (including the Handkerchief Tree from China, Davidia involucrata).\n\nMuch of Cornwall's spring tourism is the direct result of these largely Chinese, Himalayan and Japanese plant introductions, and many of the great gardens actually close in the summer, as their glory lies in their spring flowering magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons.\n\nWe were guided first around Trewithen's gardens by Maggie herself. This garden, created largely in its present form between 1904 and 1960 by its owner George Johnstone, around an 18th century house, was set on its new path with the delivery of 100 rhododendron hybrids in 1905. It now houses a marvellous collection of magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias, amongst many others. Some of the planting around the Great Glade is from seed brought back by Kingdom Ward himself. We searched out the Magnolia wilsonii (introduced to Britain in 1920 after discovery by Ernest Wilson in 1906) with its", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215631, "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": 408, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "359\n\nunusual downward-hanging flowers with nine pure white petals, and rich red stamens, and also found a large specimen of the quite rare Michelia doltsopa, also with rich white, scented flowers. A Metasequoia glyptostroboides gave us one of many chances to benefit from Maggie's knowledge, and showed again how recent so much of our knowledge is. The tree was spotted in 1941 by a forester in Sichuan who, being unable to identify it sent leaves to Beijing. By extraordinary coincidence, a Japanese palaeobotanist was working on three-million-year-old fossils of the same tree, thought to be long extinct, and in 1946 the connection was made between the two. Like the Ginkgo biloba, therefore, this is a fossil survival - and whereas it is struggling to survive in its remote Sichuan valley, thanks to gardens like this it is actually thriving in Britain, and is now widely available. This was a theme we came across in several gardens: British horticulture feeding plants back to their original countries.\n\nHeligan is now one of the best known gardens in Britain, thanks to the televising of its restoration. Its 80 acres had almost disappeared into jungly luxuriance thanks to some 70 years of neglect, and were only \"re-discovered\" in 1990 thanks to a conversation in the pub at St. Ewe between its new owner John Willis, and one Tim Smit (now Director of the Eden Project). The gardens as we see them now are the design commissioned from Thomas Gray by Henry Hawkins Tremayne in 1780, and the last major planting was done before the First World War. Of the 22 gardeners then, all signed up; two thirds were killed, and none returned. The Tremayne family had six houses, and moved to Crone Manor, leaving Heligan tenanted but the gardens neglected, and the rest, as they say, is history.\n\nWe were taken around Heligan by Colin Howlett, whose familiarity with the project since its inception gave us a wonderful insight into its work. Many of the early plantings still visible are the results of Joseph Hooker's 1848-1850 collecting in Sikkim, which were distributed by himself and by Kew almost immediately on his return: 23 of the rhododendrons at Heligan are Hooker plantings, as is the Crinodendron, and the Magnolia campbellii collected by him is now the largest of the magnolias at 60 feet in height. Thanks to the long neglect of the gardens, however, many of the rhododendrons have hybridised, with the result that Heligan now has the job of identifying and naming many new hybrids; this is also true of its camellias.", "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 } ]