[ { "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": 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": 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": 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 } ]