8* PREFACE. 



western sides, saturated with moisture during the long-continued heavy- 

 rains of spring and early summer, and never exposed to real drought, 

 afford to the botanist who examines them in detail an extraordinarily 

 varied Plora. And a large proportion of this Flora is characterized by 

 the collectors as arborescent or shrubby, although on the other hand 

 the woods are stated to be of very limited extent, generally of stunted 

 growth, and to consist mainly of very few species, Piiius sinensis on the 

 more exposed parts, Ternstrcemia japonic a and a few others in the more 

 sheltered valleys ; the numerous species of Oak, Tig, and other trees be- 

 ing usually limited to few individuals. 



The rock of the island is chiefly granite (syenite), with occasional 

 masses of basaltic trap. Limestone is entirely v.antiug. The tempera- 

 ture is as variable as the degree of humidity, the burning heats of a tro- 

 pical sun alternating with the cold devastating fury of a Chinese typhoon. 

 The annual range of the thermometer is from about 47° to 93° Fahr., 

 according to a table of six years' observation given by Dr. Seemann 

 from a Hongkong Almanack, but it is probably still wider, as Mr. Hinds 

 states that at Canton it is from 29° to 94°, and the daily range is also 

 considerable. 



Previous to the year 1841, the collections of South Chinese plants 

 received in Europe were chiefly from the neighbourhood of Macao or 

 Canton, or from the islands of the Canton river lying between those two 

 towns. Some collectors or botanical amateurs had indeed, from Macao, 

 made excursions to the opposite coast, and may probably have landed in 

 Hongkong, and the plants recorded in the ' Plantse Meyenianse,' as from 

 the Cap-Syng-Moon, although mostly from the island of Lantao, a few 

 miles higher up the river, may also in some instances be of Hongkong 

 origin, but we have no authentic record of any plants gathered in that 

 island until the survey made by the of&cers of H.M.S. Sulphur, under 

 Captain Sir Edward Belcher, in the year 1841. It was on the occasion 

 of this survey that the late Mr. Kichaed Beinsley Hinds, surgeon 

 of the vessel, made the first collection of Hongkong plants which has 

 reached us. Notwithstanding the unfavourable period of the year, — 

 his stay round the island was only for a few weeks during the winter or 

 dry season, — he was enabled on his return home to place in my hands 

 specimens of nearly 140 species, the Enumeration of which I published 

 in Hooker's ' Loudon Journal of Botany,' vol. i. p. 482. 



Early in 1847, the late Colonel (then Captain) J. Gr. Champion, of 

 the 95th Kegiment, who had already, during his residence in Ceylon, 



