Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/143



Superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department, Hongkong.

N order to understand the rise and progress of the Botanical and Forestry Department of Hongkong it is necessary to go back to a time when the island was hardly less barren than the mainland on the opposite side of the harbour is now.

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. Mr. Charles Ford, I.S.O., the first Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department (as it was then called) had joined the Government service originally as Superintendent of the new Government Gardens under the Department of Public Works, or Surveyor General's Department. A few months later his work was organized as a separate department and began at once to attract notice as a centre from which the well-known, but as yet little seen, garden and economic plants of China could be distributed to the outer world.

Somewhere about the year 1876 the idea was conceived of planting the bare hills with the local pine tree (Pinus massoniana). I do not suppose that any one at that time thought that the covering of the slopes in the vicinity of the town of Victoria with this tree would develop into the extensive and important Government undertaking that it has now become, nor that the system of planting, then introduced for ornament, would some day be a source of revenue to the community. The pine tree was selected as being one known to thrive well in the climate, and to be available for all sorts of soil, even the very poorest that is to be found on bare granite gravel. This has proved to be a sound choice. 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. Meanwhile, by a regular annual grant for the purpose, the Government plantations have been spreading year by year over the whole island, which is now fairly covered with trees in the lower portions. The pine area exceeds 5,000 acres. Not only has the appearance of Hongkong been revolutionised by this planting, but the bare sandy tracts which formerly disfigured the scenery have been converted into green and fertile slopes.

During recent years a fresh scheme has been initiated whereby the planting has been extended to the opposite mainland. The amphitheatre of mountains which surround the harbour on that side are now being planted year by year with pine trees from a height of 200 to one of 400 or 600 feet above the sea-level, the plantations depending upon the degree of shelter available. The seed is scattered broadcast at first, and after three or four years trees are planted in pits to fill any gaps that may be left. In this way about 400 acres are covered each year, about 1,000 trees being planted to the acre. 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). Its popularity arises from its excellent shade-giving qualities and from its extreme hardiness under all kinds of treatment. The usual way of making an avenue