FLORA & FAUNA
Chapter 2.
To a botanist the flora of Hong Kong is exciting; to one whose knowledge of flowers is limited to a nodding acquaintance with the common herbs of England it is at first sight a little disappointing. In England herbaceous plants are dominant; for example primroses, violets, bluebells and the countless weeds of wayside and cornfield-poppies and silverweeds, scarlet pimpernel and blue cornflower. In Hong Kong, shrubs predominate and herbs are inconspicuous, with a few striking exceptions. The proportion of woody species to herbs in this Colony is as one to two, a much higher proportion than in temperate countries.
The standard flora of the island, "Flora Hongkongensis", was published as long ago as 1861. Its author, G. B. Bentham, was a distinguished botanist with considerable experience of other floras; some of his comments are of sufficient general interest to quote: "One is struck with the very large total amount of species crowded upon so small an island, with the tropical character of the great majority of species, with the large proportion of arborescent and shrubby species and with the very great diversity in the species themselves". "In its general character the Hong Kong flora is that of tropical Asia of which it offers in numerous instances the northern limit the flora of the damp wooded ravines of the North and West will be found to be closely allied to that of North-east India,
the Hong Kong specimens, when specifically. identical, generally showing a less luxuriant vegetation, larger flowers and other peculiarities attributable, no doubt, to a more open situation. Other species in considerable numbers have a much more tropical character extending with little variation over the Indian Archipelago, the Malayan Peninsula and even to Ceylon and Tropical Africa without penetrating into the continent of India
Notwithstanding, the prevailing idea
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of the close connection of the flora of Japan and Hong Kong, I cannot enumerate 80 species known to be common to the two countries."
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