PREFACE. 15* 



disappeared. And notwithstanding the prevailing idea of the close con- 

 nection of the Floras of Japan and Hongkong, suggested perhaps by 

 the presence in both of a few striking species or genera (Kadsura, Staun- 

 tonia, Actinidia, Camellia, Eriobotrya, Distylium, Liquidambar, BentJia- 

 vtia, Farfugium, Houttuynia, etc.), I cannot enumerate 80 species known 

 to be common to the two countries. 



With Australia our Flora exhibits a few curious points of connection, 

 either as species or types (such as Pycnospora, LagenopTiora, Stylidiivm, 

 Mitrasacme, Thysanotus, Philydrum, Lipocarpha microcephala, Arthro- 

 styles, Zoysia, etc.). They are indeed all herbaceous, and are probably 

 found in the intermediate Philippine and South Pacific islands ; some 

 of them also are maritime plants, which have always a wide range in 

 latitude as well as longitude ; yet it must be observed that many of 

 them belong to genera which have many other herbaceous or maritime 

 species, not one of which spreads beyond Australia itself. A few of 

 the above-mentioned maritime species, like Carex pumila, extend from 

 Australia to Japan. Other maritime plants belonging to the northern 

 or Japanese Floras, as Ixeris debilis and rrpens, appear to have their 

 southern limits in Hongkong. 



With America the Hongkong Flora has no direct connection, the 

 singular band of vegetation which appears to cross from JSTi America to 

 Japan, and die off through Mantchuria in central Asia, some species 

 extending as far as the Himalaya, passes to the north of Hongkong, 

 although we may even there be reminded of it by a few such types 

 as Lespedeza, Solidago, Ewpatorium, Olea rnarginata, Gelsemium, etc. 

 Those species which the island has in common with tropical America 

 are almost all generally spread over tropical Asia and Africa, and offer 

 nothing exceptional in their distribution, except perhaps the West In- 

 dian Teucrium inflatum, which appears to be abundant in several of the 

 South Pacific islands, but unknown in tropical Asia generally. 



The total number of species enumerated in the present work is 1056, 

 distributed into 591 Genera and 125 Orders. From this however must 

 be deducted 25 genera and 32 species which there is reason to believe 

 are escapes from cultivation, or may only occur where they have actually 

 been planted. Nearly 100 more species may be classed as weeds of 

 cultivation, — " plantes cultivees malgre" la volonte de l'homme," of A. 

 DC, — occurring, perhaps exclusively, in paddy-fields and other cultivated 

 spots. Of these about 6 appear to be of American origin, about 12 

 more may have been introduced with European seeds ; the remainder 

 however are so widely spread, as weeds also, over tropical Asia, that 



