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Sketch of the Inland and Flora of Hongkong, China. 

 By Dr. H. F. Hance* 



Hongkong, a corruption of Hiangkiang, " the Fragrant Streams," is 

 the name of one of a number of islands in the China Sea, at a short 

 distance from the mouth of the " River of Pearls," on the left bank of 

 which stands the city of Canton, and from which it is divided by a 

 narrow strait, called Kap-shui-munf [viilgo Cap-sing-raoon), or" Swift- 

 water Passage," running between the mainland and a continuous chain 

 of small islands, of similar character and aspect to itself It is situ- 

 ated between lat. 22° 9' and 22° 21' North, and long. 114° 6' and 

 114° 18' East, and is distant from Canton about eighty-five miles, and 

 forty from the Portuguese settlement of Macao, on the peninsula of 

 Hiangshan. At the narrowest part of the Lai-i-mun passage to the 

 eastward, it is only about half a nautical mile from the mainland. It 

 resembles, in general form, a scalene triangle, of which the apex is 

 towards the West, but is of very irregular and sinuous outline, espe- 

 cially on the southern coast, which forms the longest side of the tri- 

 angle, having an area of 29.14 square miles; while it is not quite 

 twenty-seven miles in circumference. 



It consists of a long and precipitous mountain-ridge, running east 

 and west, in some places gradually sloping down towards the sea, 

 where it is met by extensive level beaches of fine, clear, white quartz- 

 sand ; in others, terminating abruptly in frowning perpendicular cliffs, 

 more than 100 feet in height, perforated at their base by caverns, into 

 which the waves dash with a hollow sound, throwing up clouds of 

 spray. From this ridge, spurs diverge at different angles. The 

 peaks vary in altitude, the loftiest being about 1860 feet above the 

 sea-level. The prevailing rock is syenite (extensively quarried, and 

 used for edifices), which is found in immense blocks, imbedded in a 

 soil composed of the same rock, in various stages of disintegration 

 and decomposition (laterite), or piled up in fantastic shapes on the 

 hill-summits. The constituents of this rock also occur more or less 

 separate ; — felspar in its normal condition, or changed into a pure 

 white or pinkish clay ; hornblende cropping out on the surface, in 



* Read before the Liniiean Society, and communicated by Berthold Seemann, 

 Esq.,F.L.S. 



f By a very natural error, I find, in nearly all systematic works, plants gathered 

 about this locality noticed thus :— " Hab. in cap. syug-moon," or " crescit ad prom, 

 sing-moon ;" the first word being understood as an abbreviation of caput. 

 \0L. IV. 5 u 



