10 DB. H. r. hanoe's supplement to 



where* his conviction that the indigenous vegetation of Hong- 

 kong, which owed its immunity from destruction to the former 

 sparse population of the island, is identical with that once exist- 

 ing throughout the whole south of the empire, but of which, with 

 the exception of herbaceous plants, only scanty vestiges now re- 

 main, owing to the avidity with which every woody plant is sought 

 after and cut down for fuel. He hopes shortly to be able to give 

 a list, with their respective habitats, of all the plants not included 

 in the ' Plora Hongkongensis ' or the present supplement, which, 

 though not heretofore recorded as natives of China, have been 

 met with by Mr. Sampson or others on the mainland in the pro- 

 vince of Kwangtung, and which he has himself had occasion to 

 examine and verify. "With the data thus furnished, and the 

 various contributions of the writer during the past nine years to 

 the Paris ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles ' and Dr. Seemann's 

 ' Journal of Botany,' he believes it may be said that our know- 

 ledge of the South- Chinese flora and of its geographical relations 

 will be scarcely, if at all, less complete than that which we possess 

 of many parts of our East-Indian territories. 



In the following pages those species actually added to the flora 

 are numbered consecutively ; the remainder, including those 

 which, regarded as varieties by Mr. Bentham, are here assigned 

 specific rank (e. g. Scleria radula) are here marked with an 

 asterisk. 



Britisla Vice-Consulate, 

 Whampoa, 22 June, 1871. 



1 . Ranunculus holophyllus, Hance in Ann. Sc. Nat. Par. ser. 4, xv. 220. 

 Scarce, in moist cultivated ground. Allied to B. sceleratus 



Linn., and B. micranth-us, Nutt. ; agreeing with the former in its 

 elongated heads of fruit, with the latter in its pubescence and 

 slender pedicels. Not known from elsewhere. 



2. Rajiunculus sceleratus, lAnn. ; Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. 6. 9. 

 Though I do not happen to have a Hongkong specimen of this 



by me at present, there is no doubt it is a native ; and it is a com- 

 mon spring weed on the neighbouring continent in paddy-fields 

 and kitchen-gardens. Spread over the whole of Europe, most 

 parts of Temperate and some of Tropical Asia, Northern Africa, 

 and North America; but not occurring in either Australia or New 

 Zealand. 



* Seem. Journ. Bot. -riii. 274. 



