Stephen Troyte Dunn

“ In time the reproach of the arid sand hills which form so conspicuous a feature of that landscape at the present time will be removed by the growth of the trees which have already been planted over a large portion of the ground.
The streets of the city are particularly well provided with shade, trees and roadside plots of flowering shrubs and evergreens which have been planted by, and are under the care of, this department. The tree which has been most frequently employed for street planting in the past is the Chinese Banyan (Ficus retusa) . ”

“ Character of flora.—A visitor landing on the shore of Kwangtung—the only part of the coast of China washed by tropical seas first notices that the maritime phanerogamic flora is distinctly poor, the only element perhaps of the S. China flora which does not seem remarkably rich to the European visitor. On sandy beaches a close turf usually commences from the high water line varied by patches of Spinifex and Vitex or relieved by an occasional tuft of Crinum, Belamcanda or other sea-side flower. Above this a shrubby belt of Screw-pine often appears with patches of Caesalpinia. ”

“ The economic side of the work over and above that dealing with forestry, has been shown in the introduction of improved varieties of crops into the agriculture of the new territories; but those who know the Chinese best will not be surprised to be told that they have not profited much from European enterprise in this respect. The export of economic products has probably been more valuable than the imports. Large collections of samples of Chinese vegetable economic products have been made from time to time, and sent to the Imperial Institute, where they may be seen in the Hongkong Court. ”

“ These hills, covered with coarse grass and low shrubby vegetation, give an appearance of barrenness, which is scarcely relieved even on closer investigation by the scanty vegetation of shrubs and small trees which clothes the steep sides of the ravines through which the mountain torrents rush down to the beach. ”

“ Horticulture in Hongkong has one great advantage over that in most other places, and one great disadvantage—the former is secured by the peculiar climate, which allows of the cultivation, almost to perfection, of some of the finest flowering shrubs in the world; while the latter is the regular occurrence of typhoons, which always damage the gardens more or less every season. On the whole, however, this may be said to be an easy place in which to produce a good garden. ”

“ This Flora dealt only with the small island of Hongkong on the S.E. coast of China and is now moreover out of date and difficult to obtain, so that it has become more and more desirable, with growing interest in the Chinese flora and with the desire among the Chinese themselves for a scientific knowledge of their own country, to publish without delay some sort of preliminary descriptive Flora of a larger area. Such a work will serve as a stimulus to local botanical enterprise and provide a foundation for the collection of materials for a more complete Flora. ”

“ Tree-ferns, too, grow in the more sheltered parts of the gardens with great ease and luxuriance. They form, together with the palms in the Glenealy Ravine, one of the most charming pieces of scenery to be found anywhere. ”

“ There are no roads, even between the largest cities. Chinese guides can conduct the traveller from town to town, but the paths are not commodious for the carriage of heavy baggage, being at intervals only a few inches wide and consisting of narrow stone steps on the mountain sides. ”

“ Numerous expeditions have from time to time been organised for the botanical exploration of neighbouring parts of the continent, and the large number of plants thus discovered and published in botanical journals during the last quarter of a century bear witness to the value of these researches to the botanical world. ”

“ The northern portion probably contains the highest ground in the province and may confidently be expected to yield numerous new and interesting discoveries to the botanists who first have the time, means and enterprise at their disposal for its exploration. The months in which most species are in flower are April and May and most of the collections on which our knowledge of the flora is based were gathered in those months. ”

“ Supposing now that the visitor proceeds across the fields towards the nearest village, it is very probable that waste ground plants will next engage his attention, and the usual tropical weeds of such places including many species of Desmodium, Solanaceae, Amaranthaceae, Chenopodiaceae, and adhesive-seeded Compositae will be seen. The arable land consists largely of rice fields, which yield a rich flora of water-loving weeds, small Scrophulariaceae predominating. ”

“ It is a very quick-growing, hardy tree, and valuable as a binder of loose slopes. Although a continuous series of experiments have been made with other trees of all kinds which might have been supposed to be suitable to this climate, no good substitutes have ever been found for it up to the present time. ”

“ The eastern shores of the mainland portion are washed by the waters of Mirs Bay, its western side forming the eastern shore of the Canton River estuary. No special reference is necessary here to the topography of the British territory as excellent maps on various scales are available. Further inland the location of collectors' stations is less easy, but much valuable topographical information has been collected by missionaries and other residents. This and a few small-scale native maps are so far our only sources of information. No general survey with modern instruments has yet been made. ”

“ There were, it is true, one or two small patches of virgin forest, such as that now existing on the north side of Little Hongkong village, and there were, doubtless, small groves of pine trees round the fishing villages which dotted the coast, but the sides of the mountains in general were bare of trees, and, in many places, bare even of grass. ”

“ On the highest mountains, where clouds are not infrequent even in the dry season, level plains of fairly close turf (Ischaemum, etc.) are found, containing ground orchids, Balsams and mountain Compositae. On the middle and lower slopes there is usually an irregular covering of coarse grass associated with patches of Melastomaceous and Ericaceous undershrubs. On these grassy slopes Hedyotis species and Acanthaceae abound, and here and there may be seen the great white trumpets of Lilium longiflorum or the blue cups of Platycodon. ”

“ The succession of extremes of wet and dry weather naturally exerts a profound influence on the vegetation, but quite as important in this respect are doubtless the periodical visits of typhoons to which the coastal regions are liable at all times, but especially during the late summer. ”

“ These are the North River which falls into the West River near Canton, the East River flowing into the Canton Delta through the Tungkun plains and the northern affluents of the turbid Han, which falls into the sea near Swatow. The sources of the East River, about which little is known, are among what are probably the highest mountains in the province. Elsewhere the ranges seldom exceed 3,000 feet, though isolated peaks rise here and there one or two thousand feet higher. ”

“ This vegetation, which extends into the open ground, wherever allowed so to spread, has a constant element throughout the province of beautiful and abundant shrubby species such as Rhodomyrtus, Melastoma, Gordonia, Gardenia, Mussaenda, and equally common though less conspicuous Strophanthus, Raphiolepis, Pittosporum, Lespedeza, Eurya, Zanthoxylum, Diospyros, and shrubby Euphorbiaceae, and Urticaceae. ”

“ Sources of information regarding the flora.—It may be said, in the first place, that no information of any kind has been or can be collected from Chinese sources, which could be usefully included in the kind of Flora expected by western readers. The foundation of this Flora is the Colonial Herbarium at Hongkong, to which reference has already been made. ”

“ This granite is intermixed with harder and more resistant rock masses, which remain as gigantic boulders all over the granite mountains as the softer parts are washed away. In the interior and to a less extent on the coast, limestone formations, coal measures and tertiary sandstones occupy large areas. ”

“ On muddy shores there is frequently a dwarf mangrove formation formed by small Rhizophoraceae and Aegiceras in the shallow water. Where salt marshes occur various Cyperaceae are predominant as in other parts of the world. ”

“ The location of doubtful sites of old collections. The supply of habitats, colours of flowers and time of flowering, where missing, The compilation of a Flora dealing with the Mosses, Algae, Fungi and other classes of vegetation not dealt with in this volume. ”

“ Plan of the flora.—For the reasons given in the preface, the descriptive part of the Flora has been reduced to the smallest limits compatible with the object of enabling the collector to determine his plants. The following were deemed sufficient for this purpose. 1. A key to the Natural Orders. 2. A key to the genera of each Natural Order. 3. ”

“ Out of each 100 records, 23, on an average, are found to refer to Hongkong (chiefly from Ford, Hance, Tutcher) , 15 to the New Territory (Ford, Dunn, Tutcher) , 11 to the Swatow hinterland (Dunn) , 10 to the Lienchow River (Ford, B. C. Henry) , five each to Canton (Hance, Sampson) , Lofoushan (Ford chiefly) , N. River (Sampson, Ford) , W. River (Hance) and Macao (Vachell) , four to Hoifung (Dunn's Chinese collector) , and 12 to other parts. ”

“ Its length amounts to 600 miles lying nearly east and west, but it nowhere recedes more than 250 miles from the open sea. Its area, about 68,000 square miles, is rather less than that of Great Britain. Some 300 small islands lie off the coast, among which is Hongkong. ”

“ STEPHEN TROYTE DUNN, B.A., F.L.S.,
sometime Superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department, Hongkong;
AND
WILLIAM JAMES TUTCHER, F.L.S.,
Superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department, Hongkong.
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