ENG-1957 — Page 388

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

but unfinished series, The Flowering Plants of Hong Kong by A. H. Crook; Plants of Lan Tau Island by F. A. McClure, which appeared in the Lingnan University Science Bulletin series for 1931; and numerous papers published in The Hong Kong Naturalist. Since the war three official publications, in the series Food and Flowers, have appeared, giving, amongst other information, articles on some of the more conspicuous wild plants of the Colony.

The flora of the Colony is tropical, but this is about the northern limit of tropical flora. The alternation between hot humid summers and cool dry winters results in a dormant period for tropical plants during winter. These conditions promote the development of large flowers borne at definite seasons of the year. The consequence is that a genus repre- sented in Hong Kong and also in equatorial countries produces here a greater wealth of flowers of larger size.

There is considerable diversity of flowering shrubs and trees, including magnolia, Michelia, Rhodoleia, Illicium and Tutcheria. Six species of rhododendron grow wild; there are also a wild Gordonia and wild roses. The heather family is represented by a pink-belled Enkianthus, flowering at the time of the Chinese New Year. A Litsea also blooms at this

time.

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Bauhinia blakeana, named after a former Governor, Sir Henry Blake, and discovered by the fathers of the Missions Etrangères at Pok Fu Lam, is among the finest of the Bauhinia genus anywhere in the world. Its origin is un- known; it is a sterile hybrid, never producing seed. A new and distinct species of camellia, Camellia granthamiana, was discovered at Shing Mun in 1955.

Fruit-bearing herbs include several wild hollies, Melodinus, Strychnos, wild kamquat, Gardenia, Maesa, Mussaenda ('the Buddha's Lamp'), Dichroa, several species of Callicarpa, Dianella in the lily family, Raphiolepis (the so-called Hong Kong hawthorn), wild jasmine and wild persimmon.