Flora of Kwangtung and Hongkong (China) Being an Account of The
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ASIA Oldtnell Htttneraity ffitbrarg CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 073 202 933 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924073202933 P.EW Bulletin, Add. Series X 762, 1-30 bSI^11/ 73. SOD-IOJI- To -filce. page- 1 . J [All Bights Reserved.] EOYAL BOTMIC GARDENS, KEW. BULLETIN OF MISCELLANEOUS INEOEIATIOK ADDITIONAL SERIES X. ELORA OE KWAiaTUia AO H0I&K0I6- (OHIIA) BEING AN ACCOUNT OP THE FLOWERING PLA.NTS, FERNS AND FERN ALLIES TOGETHER WITH KEYS FOR THEIR DETERMINATION PRECEDED BY A MAP AND INTRODTJCTrON, BY STEPHEN TROYTE DUNN, B.A., F.L.S., sometime Superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department, Hongkong ; AND WILLIAM JAMES TUTCHER, F.L.S., Superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department, Hongkong. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. To be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from WjifMAN AND SONS, Ltd., Feitbr Lane, E.G.; or OLIVER AND BOYD, Tweeddale Court, Edinburgh; or E. PONSONBY, Ltd., 116, Graeton Street, Dublin. printed by DARLING AND SON, Ltd., Bacon Street, E. 1912. Price is. 6d. G: 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 Hongkongensis 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 This Flora dealt only with the small island of Hongkong on the S.E. coast of China and is now moreover out of date and difficult to obtain, so that it has become more and more desirable, with growing interest in the Chinese flora and with the desire among the Chinese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. INTRODUCTION. Position and size of area.—Kwangtung is the southernmost pro- vince of China and occupies the whole of the southern coast line of the empire. Bounding it upon the north are the maritime province of Fokien and the inland ones of Kiangsi and Hunan, while Kwangsi lies immediately to the west. At its south-west corner it touches for a few miles the French Indo-Chinese colony of Tongking. Its length amounts to 600 miles lying nearly east and west, but it nowhere recedes more than 250 miles from the open sea. Its area, about 68,000 square mUes, is rather less than that of Great Britain. Some 300 small islands lie off the coast, among which is Hongkong. Climate.—The province is more than half within the tropics and is characterised for the_ greater part of the year by hot damp weather, during which periods of strong sunshine alternate with downpours of warm torrential rain amounting to some 70 inches in all. The south-west monsoon, in which these conditions prevail, breaks upon the coast rather suddenly about April and continues to blow with more or less regularity for six or seven months, gradually failing in October or November, to give place to the winter monsoon from the opposite point of the compass. The long succession of rainstorms and the usually cloud-laden sky are then succeeded as a rule by several months of cool weather accompanied by clear pale blue skies and a complete absence of rain. The smaller streams gradually dry up and the grass hills assume their winter colouring of pale brown. Though the winters are pleasantly cool, frosts are of very rare occurrence, except on the highest ground. Even there they are infrequent and of short duration. The succession of extremes of wet and dry weather naturally exerts a profound influence on the vegetation, but quite as important in this respect are doubtless the periodical visits of typhoons to which the coastal regions are liable at all times, but especially during the late summer. These brief but extraordinarily violent storms play great havoc with all kinds of vegetation and their occurrence explains some of the peculiar characters of the flora of the coast of Kwangtung. Geology.—The greater part of the surface of the coastal region consists of various igneous rocks, but chiefly of a kind of granite, which readUy disintegrates under the action of the atmosphere. This granite is intermixed with harder and more resistant rock masses, which remain as gigantic boulders all over the granite mountains as the softer parts are washed away. In the interior and to a less extent on the coast, limestone formations, coal measures and tertiary sandstones occupy large areas. Alluvial deposits attain considerable dimensions only in the deltas of the East, West and North Rivers which coalesce to form the " Canton Delta " occupying approxi- mately a triangle having three equal sides of about 100 miles each. Physical features.—Kwangtung and Kwangsi, as their names imply, form the artificial eastern and western divisions of a natural area, the basin of the great river of South China, the West River. The mountain ranges of Kwangtung, which can be seen from the sea, are (21515—6a.) Wt. 19085—411 (73). 500. 2/12. D & S. principally of granite and present the curious boldly rounded outlines, broken here and there by crags, which become especially familiar in a country where few visitors have the opportunity of seeing more than the ports and what is visible from the deck of a coasting steamer between them. These hills, covered with coarse grass and low shrubby vegetation, give an appearance of barrenness, which is scarcely relieved even on closer investigation by the scanty vegetation of shrubs and small trees which clothes the steep sides of the ravines through which the mountain torrents rush down to the beach. If the province is entered by way of Canton there has first to be traversed the " Canton Delta " where every yard of the alluvial plains is subjected to the closest cultivation, orchards of Litchi, Orange and Persimmon, fields of Maize and Sugar Cane, Hemp and Eamie, groves of Banana or Fan Palm stretching luxuriantly before the eye, line beyond line, up to the horizon. Beyond these coastal plains commence the irregular systems of rugged mountains which eventually culminate along the northern boundaries of the province. The latter follow roughly the water-parting between the rivers of Hunan and Kiangsi flowing northward into the Yangtze and the tributaries of the West River falling to the south. In this region, which is scarcely defined as a mountain range but which is nevertheless often spoken of as the Nan- shan, rise the three principal rivers of northern Kwangtung. These are the North Kiver which falls into the West River near Canton, the East River flowing into the Canton Delta through the Tungkun plains and the northern affluents of the turbid Han, which falls into the sea near Swatow. The sources of the East River, about which little is known, are among what are probably the highest mountains in the province. Elsewhere the ranges seldom exceed 3,000 feet, though isolated peaks rise here and there one or two thousand feet higher. The approach to these mountainous districts is most easily made by boat on one of the large rivers that intersect the ranges and have afforded access from time immemorial to the interior of the province. In their lower courses the banks are low and frequent groves of feathery bamboos wave in the breeze along their summits. Between these appear vistas of rich flat pastures and peaceful villages, standing in their ancestral groves. The mountains soon close in and slow progress is made up foaming rapids, past many a gorge and frowning precipice. Whenever more open reaches permit, glimpses can be caught of the wild romantic scenery of the mysterious highlands, where no white man has been. In most parts of the mountains the bold rounded outlines indicate granitic forma- tions. In the limestone districts these give place to the rugged crags and fantastic shapes, so often portrayed in Chinese pictorial art. So far as it has been explored, the coast, centre and north-west of the province are fairly well known and good descriptions of the scenery are available.