JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 18, 1881. ] 
157 
toe towards the west, its heel towards the east, its sole turned 
towards the Chinese mainland on the north, and its upper side 
facing out south to the broad ocean. All around it seawards are 
rocky uninhabited islets, which interrupt in the most pleasing 
manner the wide surface of the water, and in sunny weather 
offer in their dark green hue a charming foil to the expanse of 
rippling blue by which they are surrounded. From the mainland 
towards the island extends for some two miles the peninsula of 
British Kowloon, so as to come within ten minutes’ ferrying dis¬ 
tance of the town oE Victoria. This peninsula forms a very 
pleasant suburban resort, from which the best view is obtained of 
the white handsome frontage of the town nestling beneath and 
embracing the base of the great sombre green peak and its 
prolongations. 
The bills of the island and those of the mainland run abreast of 
each other in slightly converging lines at a distance of some eight 
miles, rising to heights of from GOO to 1800 feet, and forming a 
sort of amphitheatre, within which stretches the strait or harbour 
for a distance of nine miles, seeming from the centre to be quite 
land-locked, and amply protected from almost every wind that 
blows. So short is the distance from highland to highland across 
the strait, so ample and placid the water-way, and so numerous 
Fig. 27.—AKBUTUS AKDHACHNE. 
the points from which a bird’s-eye view of the surroundings for 
twenty miles can be obtained, that Hong Kong might be aptly 
designated the “naval colosseum” of the power which possesses 
it. All the navies of Europe could find convenient anchorage in 
its harbour, while nowhere as in its neighbourhood could a naval 
review be more successfully planned and viewed, and more im¬ 
posingly carried out.—A Wandebek. 
(To be continued.) 
ARBUTUS ANDRACHNE. 
Though one of the old inhabitants of British gardens the 
oriental Strawberry Tree is yet an ornament of no mean value in 
shrubberies, and is certainly far from being too common. In 
many establishments where such old favourites are treasured 
specimens may be found sometimes of considerable size, but com¬ 
paratively few modern gardens contain examples of it. 
Arbutus Andrachne is an evergreen, and occasionally attains the 
height of 30 feet, though specimens varying between 12 and 
20 feet are much more frequently seen than those of the extreme 
dimension given above. The leaves are oblong or oval in form, 
smooth and slightly notched at the margin ; they are also thick 
and leathery in substance. The flowers are similar in form to 
those of other Arbutuses—namely, what is botanically termed 
