Stephen Troyte Dunn

“ Of the constituents of the flora the most important is that which is common to the greater part of South China; a distinguishable element is shared with E. Fokien, Formosa and Japan; another in common with Yunnan and Cochinchina is chiefly Indian, while a smaller constituent is Malayan and Australian.
It is probable that many of the districts of the province contain a considerable endemic element in their vegetation. The small island of Hongkong, for instance, has quite a large number of species unrepresented in the neighbouring parts of China and about 100 that are actually endemic. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This Flora dealt only with the small island of Hongkong on the S.E. coast of China and is now moreover out of date and difficult to obtain, so that it has become more and more desirable, with growing interest in the Chinese flora and with the desire among the Chinese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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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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LONDON:
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