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NATURAL HISTORY

dormant during winter and encourages the development of large flowers borne at definite seasons of the year; the consequence is that a genus tends to produce a greater wealth of flowers of large size in Hong Kong than it does in equatorial countries.

Hong Kong is famous for its great variety of flowering plants, many of which are exceptional for the beauty or fragrance of their blossoms. As might be expected, the spring and early summer are the months in which most of the species come into flower. Some are easy to place in their correct families; for example, the common wild Gordonia looks like and is related to camellia, and the wild roses are unmistakably roses. But most are not so easy to name. They include a Magnolia, a Michelia with large white flowers, a Rhodoleia with groups of rose-madder coloured petals surrounded by golden bracts, an Illicium with cherry pink flowers, and a Tutcheria with large camellia-like flowers, white tinged with gold and with masses of tangerine orange stamens. A local Styrax with fragrant flowers is reminiscent of Halesia, the American snowdrop tree. Six species of Rhododendron grow wild in the Colony; of these the red one is extremely abundant, while another is so rare that it is only known to exist on one shoulder of Victoria Peak. The heather family is represented by a very lovely Enkianthus which bears beautiful pink bells in early spring at the time of the Chinese New Year. Flowering at the same time is a Litsea with small creamy white and exceedingly fragrant flowers.

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 any- where in the world. Its origin is unknown; it is a sterile hybrid, never producing seed. Another related species is Bauhinia glauca, climbing by means of tendrils, with bunches of pink flowers of sufficient beauty to merit cultivation of the plant as a covering for trellises and porches.

In addition to the six wild species of camellia, a new and distinct one was discovered in 1955 and named Camellia granthamiana in honour of Sir Alexander Grantham. Only one tree has so far been found, on the edge of a wooded ravine near the Jubilee Reservoir, bearing handsome white flowers 5 inches across, with a dense cluster of golden stamens in the centre.

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