PREFACE. 



The first and, up till now, the only work by which plants from 

 any part of the Celestial Empire could be identified was Bentham's 

 Flora Hongkong ensis published in 1861. This Flora dealt only with 

 the small island of Hongkong on the S.E. coast of China and is now 

 moreover out of date and difficult to obtain, so that it has become 

 more and more desirable, with growing interest in the Chinese flora 

 and with the desire among the Chinese themselves for a scientific 

 knowledge of their own country, to publish without delay some sort 

 of preliminary descriptive Flora of a larger area. Such a work 

 will serve as a stimulus to local botanical enterprise and provide a 

 foundation for the collection of materials for a more complete Flora. 

 During our association in the control of the Botanical and Forestry 

 Department at Hongkong we ihave fully realised this need and 

 have had the matter kept fresh in our minds by constant enquiries 

 for a work of this kind. We have therefore been induced to prepare 

 the keys and other information set forth in the following pages and 

 have deemed it wise to confine ourselves to Kwangtung and Hong- 

 kong and to cast the work on a simple scale which would not take 

 too long to carry out nor be too bulky for convenient use. 



We desire to record our thanks to Sir Henry Blake, Governor 

 of Hongkong (1897-1903) and to subsequent Governors who have 

 sanctioned successive measures for the increase of efficiency of the 

 botanical service of the colony and for the exploration of neigh- 

 bouring portions of the coast, hitherto botanically unknown, to 

 Dr. C.'G. Matthew, R.N., and to the late Mrs. Gibbs for their help 

 with the detailed exploration of the Colony and to the Chinese 

 botanical collectors and herbarium assistants for their labours for us 

 in the field and office. Lastly we wish to express our appreciation 

 of the courtesy of the Director of the Koyal Botanic Gardens, 

 Kew, in allowing the use of the Kew herbarium and library during 

 the final stages of the work. 



The Authors. 



