Page:Flora of Kwangtung and Hongkong.djvu/16

8 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. 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.

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.

The drier vegetable fields become covered, if neglected, with Cruciferous and other annuals, or, in the coastal regions, with introduced weeds such as Ageratum and Oxalis.

The farms and villages are nearly always surrounded by fine old Fung-shui (or ‘good luck’) trees, mostly Banyan (Ficus retusa). There may also be clumps of thorny and other large bamboos. Passing on now to an examination of the mountain vegetation, it will at once be noticed that, except in the most inaccessible regions, or those carefully protected (such as Hongkong), their surface in the granitic regions presents the appearance from a distance of smooth grassy downs, whose gigantic and varied forms, broken here and there by rock masses, close in the horizon. In the limestone districts more rock and less down is seen, but, even there, the less remote mountains are destitute of all woods. The cause of this is the old, and perhaps excusable, custom that the Chinese have of cutting down all the wild trees, shrubs and grass near their villages for fuel, and of setting fire to the turf in the dry season to extirpate the remnants of arborescent vegetation. The gullies or ravines, being saved from the grass fires by their rocky character and less pronounced dryness during the north-east monsoon, contain a dense vegetation, particularly rich in flowering shrubs and ferns. 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. In the more rocky and damp ravines are found various epiphytic orchids, Gesneraceae and herbaceous Urticaceae.

Between the gullies, the mountain sides have, as has been said, a general appearance of smooth grass. On closer inspection this is found to consist of numerous different formations of lowly growth. 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