September 22, 1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 269 
thirty dishes of varieties raised by himself, several being entered in 
the classes for new varieties. A portion of the trial collection of 
Potatoes at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardens, Chiswick, 
comprising 120 varieties, also formed a feature of much interest. 
Messrs. J. Yeitch & Sons, Chelsea, staged about two hundred dishes 
of Apples and Pears, the former being remarkably fine. Messrs. W. 
Paul & Son, Waltham Cross, also had a similarly extensive collection 
of Apples and Pears, with six boxes of Rose blooms very fresh and 
bright. Mr. R. B. Cant of Colchester sent three boxes of Roses, and 
Messrs. H. Cannell it Son, Swanley, had several handsome collections 
of Dahlias and Verbenas, which brightened the appearance of the 
tables very pleasingly. 
HONG KONG. 
( Continued from page 1S2.) 
Of that small portion of Victoria which stands on the limited 
strip of level soil between the spurs of the hills and the water. 
Queen’s Road is the main artery ; it is, in fact, the longest and 
widest thoroughfare, extending from under the Peak almost to 
the Happy Valley, a distance of about three miles. It begins in 
the lower quarters of the town as Queen’s Road East, and runs a 
somewhat winding course through the great business centre, where 
are the superior class of Chinese shops, the European stores, the 
courts, the clubs, the hotels, and the piazzas, till it reaches the 
City Hall and Beaconsfield Arcade. Here between the cricket 
and parade grounds, and directly under the cathedral, on a fresh 
morning in November or a moonlight night somewhat earlier in 
the season, Hong Kong appears to perhaps the greatest advantage. 
Glittering in the sunlight or gleaming softly in the moonlight are 
the elegant City Hall, Beaconsfield Arcade, and cathedral, toned 
down in a setting of the freshest sward and avenues of Banyan 
trees, between which on one side can be seen the rippling surface 
of the ship-studded harbour, while on the other towers up the 
heavy lowering mass of the sombre green Peak. The Graphic 
Fig. 45.—VIEW IN THE CAUDENS AT IIONG KOXC. 
last January published some so-called illustrations of this, which 
give but a very poor idea of a scene that would have driven some 
of our poets who have raved about the beauties of the Italian cities 
into a state of absolute speechlessness could they have extended 
their experiences thus far. 
But not less beautiful in their way, though more confined in 
their view, are the winding walks which conduct the visitor from 
the cathedral up the face of the hills to the more elevated roads 
of the town and to the ornamental grounds of the public gardens 
and Government House. These, like the Queen’s Road west of 
the City Hall to the Happy Valley, are planted and overshadowed 
with well-grown specimens of the Ficus retusa, which has been 
found to be the tree that, while combining the joint qualities of 
quick growth with plentiful shade, thrives on the granitic soil of 
the roads in Victoria ; also in places are to be seen specimens of 
the Pinus sinensis, a somewhat scraggy untidy tree of its class, 
but which has been found to take kindly to the soil of Hong Kong 
and helps to add to the garment of vegetation that is every year 
creeping more thickly over the once bare face of the hills. The 
greatest efforts are being made by the Government to promote 
this object, and for that purpose it procured some nine years ago, 
on the ad vice of Sir Joseph Hooker, the services of Mr. Charles 
Ford, a Yorkshireman, who has since 1872 been installed at Hong 
Kong as curator of the gardens and manager of the department 
of afforestation. To this gentleman I must express my indebted¬ 
ness for much information, and also for the remarks on the arbori¬ 
culture and botany of Hong Kong. When Mr. Ford arrived there 
was everything to be done towards reclaiming the foot hills from 
their condition of bareness, and for some years progress was not so 
rapid as Mr. Ford could have wished, in consequence of some 
confliction of individual opinions in the matter. Until 1877 some 
sixty thousand saplings had only been planted, a large per-centage 
of which died. Now, however, Mr. Ford finds himself with ten 
different nurseries in Hong Kong and Kowloon, occupying in all 
about twenty acres, from whence he last year drew 270,000 sap¬ 
lings, which he planted along the hills and in various parts of the 
