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NATURAL HISTORY

There are 75 species of native orchids recorded in the flora. They grow in shady wet places, on the foot of large trees, under cliffs and near the rims of streams and waterfalls. The noteworthy ones are the Nun orchid, the Bamboo orchid, the Lady's Slipper orchid, the Rattlesnake orchid, the Susan orchid and the Buttercup orchid.

There is a fine wild iris, further south than any other true iris, and a wild lily grows on some hillsides, whose individual flowers are sometimes seven inches long. A wild Crinum is found by the sea, and also Belamcanda, one of the iris family.

In damp ravines may be found Chirita, several begonias, a fragrant-leaved rush, stag's horn mosses, giant aroids, treeferns and countless kinds of smaller ferns, including maidenhair and the local Royal ferns. On hill-sides English bracken, a cosmo- politan plant, may be seen growing together with the so-called Hong Kong Bracken, Gleichenia, and a fragrant-leaved myrtle called Baeckea.

Other species recorded in recent years are Stuartia Villosa, Ormosia indurata and Eryngium foetidum, found on Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong Island and Lantau Island respectively.

The Colonial Herbarium, which provided the foundation for the work of Dunn and Tutcher's 'Flora of Kwangtung and Hong Kong', has been added to considerably since that book was produced. At present over 29,000 specimens are preserved, and members of the public who wish to find out the names of native plants are encouraged to consult the Herbarium.

Interest in flora and horticultural work in Hong Kong is also fostered by the Hong Kong Natural History Society as well as by the Hong Kong Horticultural Society.