[ { "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": 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": 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 } ]