There are Government Departments which do their work efficiently, quietly and economically. Of these, there is no more striking example in Hongkong than the Botanical and Forestry Department, which, with an amazingly small personnel, has, in the last quarter of a century, contributed greatly to the beautification of the Colony. The observant visitor, when ther from Shanghai and other Far Eastern centres or from overseas, must have realized the existence of some scheme of ordered planning to account for the wealth of trees and flowering shrubs seen all over the Colony. Chief praise for the effects produced is due to Mr. Harold Green, Superintendent of the Department, ho is now going on retirement after 26 years service. During his regime, thousands of roadside trees have been planted, to say nothing of the wholesale distribution of pretty flowering shrubs.
In 1914 no fewer than 800 hydrangeas, 120 bauhinias and 120 callistemon plants were laid down on the Fanling hills, while in the same ear 500 azaleas were planted out at Wong Nei Chang Gap and Deep Water Bay on the island. In the following year, a total of 6,000 trees, apart from pines, were planted in the Tytam catchment area, and the Fanling hills were further enriched by the addition of 4000 towering shrubs and trees. Since then, 2.000 flowering ələnts have been laid out in the Deep Water Bay region. Des-spite depredations—for despoilers of the ide are a constant menace—and the effects of weather, most of these plantings have survived and in some cases have been self-propagated, with the result that the ork which Mr. Green initiated and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.