SUPPLEMENT TO THE FLORA HONGKONGENSIS. 95 
Floræ Hongkongensis Supplementum. A compendious Supple- 
ment to Mr. BeNTHaAw's Description ofthe Plants of the Island 
of Hongkong. By Henry Fiercmer Hasor, Ph.D. &c. 
(Communicated by J. D. Hooxer, M.D., V.P.L.S., &c.) 
[Read November 16, 1871.] 
* Emicuere rose violeeque et molle cyperon ; 
Albaque de viridi riserunt lilia prato.”—Prrron. Satyr. 127. 
RATHER more than ten years have elapsed since the publication 
of Mr. Bentham’s ‘Flora Hongkongensis the importance of 
which, to the student of the South-Asiatic flora, it would be dif- 
ficult to overrate. Until it appeared, the only works available 
for consultation, except general systematie ones, such as the 
* Prodromus! of DeCandolle and Kunth's ‘Enumeratio, were 
Loureiro's ‘ Flora Cochinchinensis,’ Meyer's * Observationes Bota- 
nice,’ the ‘ Botany’ of Beechey's Voyage, and that of H.M.S. 
* Herald'—the last containing a tolerably complete list (but un- 
fortunately little more than a list) of Hongkong plants, and the 
others being far too incomplete and unreliable for any useful pur- 
pose. To the above might be added Wight and Arnott's ‘ Pro- 
dromus Flore peninsule Indix orientalis, and Hooker and 
Thomson's * Flora Indica; but the former, remarkable for the 
judgment and ability with which it is composed, extends only, 
following the Candollean sequence, to Dipsacacee; whilst the 
second breaks off at Fumariacew, and can only be regarded as a 
specimen of what the authors would have desired to accomplish 
had entire leisure and the requisite Government support been at 
their disposal. Roxburgh’s ‘ Flora Indica’ has long been unpro- 
curable. The ‘Flora Indie Batave’ of the late Prof. Miquel, 
published in five thick volumes from 1855 to 1861, is unquestion- 
ably an important contribution to botanical science ; but it is far 
too much of a compilation, the characters being, for the most 
part, copied without alteration or examination from general sys- 
tematic works ; and there is too little critical spirit displayed in 
the limitation of the species (which are unreasonably multiplied) 
for it to be safely placed in the hands of unpractised botanists, 
who would be likely to acquire exaggerated ideas of the value of 
differences to which experienced students attach little weight. 
Mr. Bentham’s book remains, in fact, at present, the most useful 
and complete of its kind; and while its comprehensive views ad- 
mirably adapt it to train a young botanist judiciously and steer 
