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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

others, of which the most commonly seen are casuarina, eucalyptus and flamboyant.

The principal locally-grown fruits include laichee, lungngan, wong pei, loquat, pomelo, tangerine, banana, papaya, pineapple, custard apple, guava and Chinese varieties of plum and pear. Of these, papaya, pineapple, custard apple and guava were originally introduced from South America by the Portuguese some time after the foundation of Macau. The tangerine, native to South China, was introduced to the West in the seventeenth century by the Portuguese, who transplanted it to Tangier, then under their control.

The flora of Hong Kong Island has been fully, though not completely, described in Flora Hongkongensis, by G. B. Bentham, published in 1861, and in the descriptive Flora of Kwangtung and Hong Kong by S. T. Dunn and W. J. Tutcher, published in 1912. Less comprehensive works include a small book, remarkable for its excellent drawings, by L. Gibbs, entitled Common Hong Kong Ferns; an illustrated 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 de- velopment of large flowers borne at definite seasons of the year. The consequence is that a genus represented 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