VEGETATION OF HONG KONG. 48i 
vegetation here being sheltered from wind and nourished 
by the soil and streams. On the shoulders of the hills 
little is seen, beyond fern, stunted grass, and a few poor 
mean bushes. Trees can scarcely be said to exist ; but there 
is a great variety, in sheltered situations, of low pretty ever- 
green shrubs, and their prevalence is a leading feature in the 
vegetation. A large proportion bear berries of different 
colours, which render them attractive and ornamental. Some 
difference is easily perceptible between the plants of the 
elevated vallies and those lower down; a neat Rhododendron 
is almost confined to the greatest heights, and Photinia ser- 
rulata, though it abounds below, flowers more freely and 
prettily at an elevation. Pinus?—has here a very low 
range of latitude, as 22° N.E.; but grows only on the west 
side of the island, where, though without a stunted aspect, 
the trees are all small, low, slender and delicate. The 
general appearance of the vegetation decidedly indicates a 
dry climate, visible in the absence of great luxuriance, in the 
compact evergreen foliage, and the scarcity of cryptogamic 
plants, for I observed not a single moss or agaricine fungus. 
The flora of China is remarkable for its assemblage of 
genera from various, and sometimes distant, sources ; and in 
this respect is without a parallel in any other part of the 
world. Forms, distinctive of Indian vegetation, and of the 
warm moist Islands of the Malay Archipelago, are freely 
mingled with others from northern Asia, Europe, and even 
the eastern’parts of North America. 
The habit and character of its vegetation is such as it is 
usual to expect at some distance to the north of its geogra- 
phical position, and though an enumeration of the species 
would contain a large proportion very decidedly tropical, they 
fail to impart their peculiar features. 
