ENG-1953 — Page 229

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1953

3 to 6 inches long, oval in shape, tapering at both ends, usually crowded at the ends of the branches. The flowers are white, borne three to seven together on short, flattened stems well below the leaf clusters. They have a short, downy calyx tube with five short lobes, and many stamens in five bundles opposite the five fringed petals. The fruiting capsules are cup-shaped, three-parted, a little less than half an inch in diameter. This tree attains a great height in its native habitat and is suitable for hot dry regions, as it withstands great drought. It yields an excellent timber valued for its strenghth and durability.

Yellow Poinciana (Peltophorum inerme)

This summer-flowering tree is a native of Malaya and northern Australia. It is a tall tree, often reaching a height of 50 feet or more with a smooth gray bark and a fairly spreading crown. The fern-like leaves are large and much divided, being 1 to 2 feet long, with 8 to 10 pairs of pinnae each bearing 10 to 12 pairs of oval leaflets. The flowering period is long and variable. In early summer, big erect panicles of round, rust-red buds appear at the branch ends, developing into orange-yellow flowers, each about an inch in diameter with crumpled and twisted petals. These lovely

These lovely fragrant blossoms each last but a short time, falling while still fresh and daily carpeting the ground with gold. The dark red, flat, winged pods persist on the trees until the next flowering season and are an attractive feature after the leaves have dropped.

Sterculia (Sterculia lanceolata)

This is one of the most conspicuous of the smaller wild trees in the Colony on account of its large vivid scarlet fruits which are borne in abundance in June, July and August. These fruits are of a kind called follicles, as are the pods of peas and beans, and like them split along the lower side, when ripe, to disclose the jet black seed. It is normal for five fruits to develop from a single flower and these radiate from the centre

186