RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch

RASHKB and author

Vol. 1 (1961)

ISSN 1991-7295

27

FLOWERS OF HONG KONG

Synopsis of a lecture delivered on November 2, 1960, based on Mr. F. A. Nixon's collection of colour transparencies.

B. T. CHIU, B.Sc.

The 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.

The following transparencies were projected:

TREES

Delonix regia (Flame of the Forest)

Bauhinia blakeana (orchid-like Bauhinia)

B. variegata (deciduous Bauhinia)

Cassia fistula (Golden shower)

C. nodosa (Pink and white shower)

Erythrina indica (Coral Tree)

Crataeva religiosa (Spider Tree)

Aleurites montana (Wood or Tung Oil Tree)

Camellia japonica (Camellia)

C. hongkongensis (Crimson Hong Kong Camellia)

C. granthamiana (White Hongkong Camellia)

Jacaranda ovalifolia (Jacaranda)

Spathodea campanulata (African Tulip Tree)

Paulownia tomentosa (Paulownia)

Rhodoleia championi (King of Hanging Bells)

SHRUBS

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (Rose of China)

H. schizopetalus (Fringed hibiscus)

H. mutabilis (Cotton rose)

Rhododendron simsii (Red Rhododendron)

R. pulcherrimum (Purple Rhododendron)

Page 30
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch

RASHKB and author

28

Vol. 1 (1961)

ISSN 1991-7295

Enkianthus quinqueflorus (Chinese Bell) Callistemon rigidus (Red bottle brush) Melastoma candidum (Melastoma) Musseander pubescens (Buddha's Lamp) Ixora chinensis (Flame flower)

CLIMBERS Bauhinia glauca (Pink climbing Bauhinia)

Pyrostegia venusta (Fire cracker vine) Lonicera confusa (Honey suckle)

4

HERBS

Bongainvillea spectabilis (Bongainvillea) Nelumbium nelumbo (Lotus)

Platycodon grandiflora (Hong Kong Canterbury Bell) Epiphyllum sp. (Night Blooming Cactus) Mimosa pudica (Sensitive Plant) Hemerocallis fulva (Day Lily)

Lilium brownii (Local Chinese Lily) Iris speculatrix (Hong Kong Iris) Arundina chinensis (Bamboo orchid)

Habenaria susannae (Susan orchid)

Short comments were made for each slide and some perhaps deserve recording.

In 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.

The 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
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