HONEY LOCUST 



2827 



HONG-KONG 



HONEY LOCUST, SWEET LOCUST, or 

 BLACK LOCUST, a beautiful tree closely re- 

 sembling the acacia. It grows to a height of 

 seventy or eighty feet and has extremely grace- 

 ful, light-green foliage. Seeds are grown in 

 long pods, embedded in a mass of sweet pulp. 

 From this pulp sugar has been made, and when 

 fermented it yields an intoxicating spirit for- 

 merly much prized by the American Indians. 

 The branches bear many three-pronged thorns, 

 and in some localities it is called the three- 

 thorned acacia. The honey locust is very popu- 

 lar as a decoration in parks and gardens. See 

 ACACIA. 



HONEYSUCKLE, hun'isuk'l, a family of 

 twining shrubs which bear trumpet-shaped, 

 nectar-filled flowers. Various species are found 

 in temperate zones all over the world. The 

 white-flowered species lure sphinx moths in 

 the night. The 

 bush honey- 

 suckle, with its 

 small, yellow 

 blossoms, attracts 

 the bees. With 

 blossoms which 

 are red without 

 and orange -yel- 

 low within, the 

 coral, or trumpet, 

 h oneysuckle 

 flaunts a flaming 

 invitation to 

 humming birds, 

 calling to them 

 to taste of the sweets it holds. All species 

 have dark-green, oval leaves which are usually 

 very smooth and grow opposite each other in 

 pairs. On some honeysuckle shrubs it seems as 

 though the woody stems grow right through 

 the leaves. Most shrubs of this family are 

 evergreens, or nearly so, and when the flowers 

 disappear bright crimson berries take their 

 places. Many birds eat these berries, and so 

 the seeds are widely distributed. Honey- 

 suckles grow along waysides or in tangled 

 woodlands, or beautify porches, 'walls, or trel- 

 lises of gardens. In his Marmion Scott says: 

 And honeysuckle loved to crawl 

 Up the low crag and ruin'd wall. 



Honeysuckles are also called woodbine, and are 

 said to be the twisted eglantine mentioned by 

 Milton. 



HONG-KONG, popularly known both as an 

 island and city by that name, is the great 

 stronghold of British commerce in the Far 



East, and an important naval and military 

 station. Hong-kong is, in fact, the name of the 

 island only; it covers an area of twenty-nine 

 and a half square miles, situated at the mouth 

 of the estuary of the Si-kiang, ninety miles 



TRUMPET HONEYSUCKLE 



LOCATION MAP 



south of Canton. Separating it from the main- 

 land is a channel varying from one quarter of 

 a mile to a mile in width. The island is moun- 

 tainous, covered with bare granite ranges and 

 almost entirely destitute of vegetation. The 

 city is Victoria, generally spoken of as Hong- 

 kong. It is a prosperous and beautiful town, 

 with a magnificent harbor and every facility 

 for loading and unloading the largest vessels. 

 Nearly the whole of the population of the 

 island is located in the capital, which is di- 

 vided into a European and a Chinese section. 

 The white inhabitants for the most part have 

 their homes among the beautiful heights over- 

 looking the city, harbor and sea. 



In 1860 the peninsula of Kowloon was added 

 to Hong-kong by treaty with China, and in 

 1898 China leased to Great Britain & further 

 strip of land north of the Peninsula, also the 

 island of Lan-tao. This newly-acquired terri- 

 tory is agriculturally the most valuable in the 

 whole colony. In the dry season the climate of 

 Hong-kong is healthful, but during the rainy 

 period, from May to August, fevers prevail. 



The chief industries are granite quarrying, 

 sugar refining, gold beating, furniture making 

 and the manufacture of cotton goods. The 

 imports and exports are valued at more than 

 $40,000,000 annually. The colony is adminis- 

 tered by a governor, assisted by executive and 

 legislative councils, in which the commanders 

 of the naval and military forces hold important 

 positions. The British originally occupied the 

 island of Hong-kong in 1841, and it was finally 

 abandoned by China by the terms of a charter 

 dated April 5, 1843. Population in 1911, 366,- 

 145, of whom 4,446 were Europeans and 

 Americans, the remainder being Chinese and 

 mixed races. 



