Page:Flora Hongkongensis.djvu/14

 western sides, saturated with moisture during the long-continued heavy rains of spring and early summer, and never exposed to real drought, afford to the botanist who examines them in detail an extraordinarily varied Flora. And a large proportion of this Flora is characterized by the collectors as arborescent or shrubby, although on the other hand the woods are stated to be of very limited extent, generally of stunted growth, and to consist mainly of very few species, Pinus sinensis on the more exposed parts, Ternstrœmia japonica and a few others in the more sheltered valleys; the numerous species of Oak, Fig, and other trees being usually limited to few individuals.

The rock of the island is chiefly granite (syenite), with occasional masses of basaltic trap. Limestone is entirely wanting. The temperature is as variable as the degree of humidity, the burning heats of a tropical sun alternating with the cold devastating fury of a Chinese typhoon. The annual range of the thermometer is from about 47° to 93° Fahr., according to a table of six years' observation given by Dr. Seemann from a Hongkong Almanack, but it is probably still wider, as Mr. Hinds states that at Canton it is from 29° to 94°, and the daily range is also considerable.

Previous to the year 1841, the collections of South Chinese plants received in Europe were chiefly from the neighbourhood of Macao or Canton, or from the islands of the Canton river lying between those two towns. Some collectors or botanical amateurs had indeed, from Macao, made excursions to the opposite coast, and may probably have landed in Hongkong, and the plants recorded in the 'Plantæ Meyenianæ,' as from the Cap-Syng-Moon, although mostly from the island of Lantao, a few miles higher up the river, may also in some instances be of Hongkong origin, but we have no authentic record of any plants gathered in that island until the survey made by the officers of H.M.S. Sulphur, under Captain Sir Edward Belcher, in the year 1841. It was on the occasion of this survey that the late Mr., surgeon of the vessel, made the first collection of Hongkong plants which has reached us. Notwithstanding the unfavourable period of the year,—his stay round the island was only for a few weeks during the winter or dry season,—he was enabled on his return home to place in my hands specimens of nearly 140 species, the Enumeration of which I published in Hooker's 'London Journal of Botany,' vol. i. p. 482.

Early in 1847, the late (then Captain), of the 95th Regiment, who had already, during his residence in Ceylon,