Richmond William Hullett
Encyclopedia
Richmond William Hullett (15 November 1843 - 1914) was an English 19th Century gentleman more often associated with Singapore than Hong Kong
. He was a headmaster, explorer and plant collector. This shy and modest man left a legacy which stretched far beyond the shores of Singapore. His influence in the fields of language and education, conservation, exploration and botany has had a lasting impact on the lands of Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra, Indonesia, England and beyond. Through this man’s selfless devotion to his duties both as headmaster, explorer and conservationist, many of the plants we enjoy today in Hong Kong and Asia would not have survived the major human impact. His achievements as an academic and scholar have inspired and influenced many Chinese scholars.
Hullett discovered the plant Bauhinia hullettiihttp://csvh.org/col08/show_species_details.php?record_id=606727 (a synonym for Bauhinia ferruginea var. ferrugineahttp://images.google.com/images?q=Bauhinia%20ferruginea%20ferruginea) on Mount Ophir
in Malaysia.The Bauhinia, an orchid-like plant with beautiful delicate flowers, became his passion. He was an avid collector and likely spent many hours studying it and propagating it. A variant of Bauhinia, known as Bauhinia blakeana
, has been adopted by Hong Kong for its national flag
. Bauhinia blakeana was adopted as the floral emblem
of Hong Kong by the Urban Council in 1965. Since 1997 the flower appears on Hong Kong's coat of arm, its flag and its coins. A statue of the flower was presented to the people of Hong Kong by the People’s Republic of China
and is today to be found in Golden Bauhinia Square
in Hong Kong. Although the flowers are bright pinkish purple in colour, they are depicted in white on the flag of Hong Kong. The origins of Bauhinia blakeana are shrouded in mystery. The plant itself is a cross of two variants. It is sterile and the trees we see today all over Hong Kong came from one plant discovered in Hong Kong in the 1880s, possibly the result of one of Hullett’s many experiments in propagation.
. He was the third son of The Reverend John Hullett and his wife Cecilia. Hullett had five brothers and one sister. Richmond William Hullett’s father was a clergyman in the parish of Allstree. His father was ordained Deacon of Gloucester in 1838. The Rev John Hullett Snr was a renowned scholar and theologian. He was an undergraduate at St John's College Cambridge in 1834. The Rev John Hullett authored a number of books throughout his life as a country parson. Richmond and his brothers and sister lived a modestly comfortable and educated life in the country parsonage in Allestree, Derbyshire.
s in order to receive a stable education. Richmond Hullett was sent to Rossall http://www.rossall.co.uk/ boarding school in Lancashire England. At Rossall he excelled and was an exceptional student particularly in mathematics. He won a scholarship to enter Trinity College Cambridge to study maths. He entered Trinity College Cambridge
in 1863 and graduated in 1866 as 31st Wrangler, taking a first-class honours degree
in the mathematical Tripos
http://damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/cowley/.
, Hullett secured a teaching post as assistant master at the prestigious Puritan Felsted Grammar School
in Essex, England
. Felsted School
was an ancient and respected educational establishment founded in 1564 by the First Baron Riche. Four of Oliver Cromwell
's grandsons were pupils here between 1621 and 1674. During Hullett's time here as assistant master under the leadership of Jamaican born headmaster William Stanford Grignon (MA Cantab), Hullett began to show interest in his two lifelong diversified passions; language and botany. Hullett left Felsted Grammar School in 1871 in order to take up a new senior post as principal of Raffles Institution in Singapore.
; the Hullett Memorial Library, the Hullett house in the house system, as well as the Hullett block in the Raffles Institution Boarding Complex, are all named in honour of him. During his long and distinguished career at Raffles Institution, Hullett made a mark on the world and his legacy lives today, not only in a number of important flora throughout Singapore, Malaysia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo and China but also by the many words and colloquial expressions that are used in modern day English and Malay language
.
. He was a member of the elite Straits Philosophical Society which was founded on 5 March 1893 to engage in critical discussions on philosophy, theology, history, literature, science, and art. The society played a developmental role in the intellectual and cultural life of colonial Singapore
. Its founding members were Major-General
Sir Charles Warren
(president), the Rev. G. M. Reith (secretary and treasurer), John Winfield Bonser, Walter Napier, Henry Nicholas Ridley
(fellow plant collector and explorer), J. Bromhead Matthews, J. McKillop, D. J. Galloway (Dr), A. Knight, Tan Teck Soon, T. Shelford, G. D. Haviland (Dr), R. N. Bland, and C. W. Kynnersley. The society largely comprised the intellectual elite of the colonial administration. Active membership, which was capped at 15, was opened to Singapore residents only. Priority for admission was given to university graduates, fellows of European learned societies, and people with distinguished merit.
One of the members Tan Teck Soon http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1364_2009-02-12.html was an influential Chinese scholar and past pupil of Hullett who contributed to the reformist impulse within the Chinese community in Singapore around the turn of the 20th century. In 1873, at the age of 14, Tan became the first Straits Chinese
to win the Guthrie Scholarship for Chinese boys, which enabled him to go to Amoy to continue his Chinese studies. At the Raffles Institution, Tan was one of the first pupils of Hullett, the influential principal, who made a deep impression on Tan and inspired him to further his education. Tan purchased a newspaper, the Daily Advertiser, as a vehicle for communicating to the public their ideas about the need for reform within the Chinese community. Tan was editor and proprietor of the paper from 1890 to 1894. In it he tried to keep the local Chinese community abreast of political and cultural developments in China. Tan was involved in running the Singapore Chinese Educational Institute from 1891, the inaugural lecture for which was given by Tan’s old school master, Hullett. Another of Hullett's pupils was the respected Lim Boon Keng
, OBE a Chinese doctor who promoted social and educational reforms in Singapore and China. Lim Boon Keng studied medicine at Edinburgh University
in the UK.
, recording and discovery of new plant species, Hullett was made a Fellow of The Linnean Society (FLS). He remained a member until 1909. The Linnean Society of London
is among the oldest of London's Learned Societies and is the world's oldest active organisation devoted exclusively to natural history.
. The Royal Asiatic Society was founded in 1823 by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Henry Colebrooke and a group of likeminded individuals. It received its Royal Charter
from King George IV
in the same year 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. The Straits branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was formed by a group of colonial administrators, the Society enjoyed the patronage of top-ranking officials, Governors of the Straits Settlements
, Prime Ministers of Malaysia and Singapore and the Sultan of Brunei. Hullett’s good friend and fellow plant collector Henry Nicholas Ridley was also amongst its council members. Apart from enjoying elite patronage, the Society during the colonial period received government grants, donations from the Sultans of the Malay States, franking privileges
, government provision of premises and facilities for printing and map-making.
s, whenever Hullett had the opportunity he would embark on a number of exciting and sometimes rather dangerous expeditions to collect and record exotic plants. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s Hullett was a prolific plant collector and intrepid explorer. Many of his significant plant discoveries were found on Mt Ophir (4,186 ft/1,276m) in Malaysia, ancient history
points to the mountain being the site of rich gold deposits. Although today Mount Ophir is one of the most popular and most climbed mountains, in Hullett's day it was a significant trek and often a dangerous expedition.
(Busy Lizzie
).
In 1956 in a seeming case of ‘plant envy’ it appears that Hullett was (perhaps erroneously) blamed for the inadvertent release to other areas of Southeast Asia
Linaria alpina
. The following is an extract taken from the original article which apportions blame to Hullett because of the use of ‘old rough drying paper’ to transport the seedlings
"Another singular case of distribution, too strange to be true, is that of Linaria alpina DC. found on Mt Ophir in Malaya, by HULLETT. The sheet contains one miserable 5 cm long flowering branch which can exactly be matched with European specimens. It is glued on the sheet and Mr VAN DER WERFF did not succeed in finding on a tiny fragment, aerial diatoms which might give a clue. Although the locality was very well known in the field, RIDLEY and nobody else has succeeded in recollect Linaria alpina there. The habitat, a wet place would ecologically be abnormal. Personally I am convinced that this specimen has been erroneously localized, the error in all probability having arisen by the use of old, rough drying paper which had been employed formerly in Europe and was brought along to Malaya and to which this tiny specimen adhered and escaped attention until it was loosened with the Mt Ophir collection of HULLETT"
and pomelo
variety of citrus), was collected by William Tatton Egerton on Mount Ophir, 28 December 1902. In a letter to Henry Nicholas Ridley Egerton writes:
Dear Ridley,
I send to you by Hullett some leaves and fruit of a mountain lemon or citron found growing in primaeval jungle at a height of 2200 feet about 2 miles from the Burkit Tangga Pass to Jelebu. It may well be unknown but I expect to hear that you know it well.
Yours sincerely,
W. Egerton
28/12/02
The Residency,
Seremban
Prior to human cultivation the genus citrus originated in South East Asia and consisted of just a few specimens. The leaves and fruit were brought back by Hullett but they seemed to have been ‘lost’ for over 70 years, quite what happened to them nobody knows., However when the seedling was ‘rediscovered’ in the Herbarium of the Botanic Gardens Singapore, it was documented, and named in 1973. Erroneous labelling of some specimens may account for the seeming disappearance of some varieties of plants. Important varieties of Hullett’s collection remain to this day in the Herbarium of the Botanic Gardens Singapore. Citrus halimii, was named after the King of Malaysia His Majesty Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda Yang DiPertuan Agong of Malaysia.
Hullett and Ridley also collected plants on the granite island of Pulau Uban, Singapore. The original vegetation probably consisted of lowland forest and mangrove swamps. Today much of the original vegetation has been cleared. Nearly 600 out of 2,257 native plants are now extinct; deforestation and disturbance have been the main causes of plant species extinction
in Singapore. During Hullett's collection on the island he discovered the Canavalis bean, seeds of which are in the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens, they were recorded in 1922 in Stanley and Lantao Island.
, which occurs predominantly in Malaysia, Borneo, and Sumatra, is the world's largest genus of pioneer trees. It grows in small gaps, along riverbanks, roadsides, and in logged areas. Macaranga hullettii tree species known from the Malay Archipelago
are colonized by specific ants which are required for the successful pollination of this specific Macaranga tree. Without Hullett's discovery of one of the popular Euphorbia varieties of plants we may not have the distribution in Southeast Asia which we enjoy today, specifically continuation of M. hullettii is most important for the colony of tiny ants which require this to survive. Hullett spent a considerable time plant collecting in Indonesia particularly in Sindang Laya in Java. Here Hullett found a species, Erechtites
valerianifoliahttp://www.jstor.org/pss/4117934, which is known for its medicinal properties and its ability to induce sleep.
In 2001 the Hong Kong Herbarium published the Checklist of Hong Kong Plants four times. The most recent checklist (2002) shows that 242 fern species have been recorded in Hong Kong. There have been great changes in the environment, vegetation and species of Hong Kong since the Opium Wars
. Although documented extinctions of species are few, it is certain that some species have disappeared from Hong Kong because of the massive human impact, and complete deforestation at low altitudes must have resulted in the loss of a substantial fraction of Hong Kong’s native flora in the past. Nevertheless, on a more positive note in a recent survey on the biodiversity of Hong Kong during 1996 to 2002, four fern species were ‘rediscovered’ 100 years after they were first collected.
. It describes 131 plants, giving a multitude of prescriptions for maladies, ranging from madness, paralysis, dysentery, fertility, stomach ache
and ulcers, to antidotes for various poisons. Similarly, Macer Floridus's ‘De viribus herbarum carmen’, Milan, is considered the first printed herbal, with poems describing the medicinal and dietary properties of 77 herbs. The Renaissance
saw an immense increase in botanic study and publication. Perhaps the most celebrated botanical work ever printed was written by Leonard Fuchs (a physician who gained his initial fame by finding a cure for the English sweating sickness
) ‘De historia stirpium’, Basel, 1542 (or, Notable commentaries on the history of plants) was first published in 1542. A massive, folio volume, this landmark work describes in Latin some 497 plants, and is illustrated by over 500 woodcuts based upon first-hand observation, this provided the first comprehensive study of plants. The Historia is undoubtedly Fuchs' greatest work, and is without equal among the herb books of that era. A labour of love some thirty one years in the making.
Within a short period, botanical texts were being published throughout Europe. Notable contributors and contemporaries of Fuchs to the advancement of botany are Hieronymus Bock’s ‘De stirpium commentariorum libri tres’, Strassburg, 1552. Hieronymus Bock
(1498–1554), who directed the botanical garden in Zweibrücken, Germany
, was a close observer of nature, he was probably the first botanist of the 16th century to feel the necessity of some sort of classification. Bock did not limit his descriptions to the flowering stage of the plants, but described them accurately at various stages in development, providing a concise life-history of each plant. His observations on plant communities
foreshadowed the modern science of ecology. In fact, Bock was the first to have recorded the seasons of annual flowering, and he is regarded as the earliest forerunner of Linnaeus, who, as we shall see later was important in naming Bauhinia.
After Bock came Otto Brunfels’s ‘Herbarum vivae eicones ad naturae imitationem’, Strassburg, 1531–36 and the next generation of scientists, from the great Flemish botanist Rembert Dodoens
to Italy's Pietro Andrea Mattioli
were born. Johann Bauhin
(1541–1630) who was a student of Leonard Fuchs wrote an equally weighty tome the ‘Historia plantarum universalis’, a compilation of all that was then known about botany, this was incomplete at his death, but was published at Yverdon in 1650-1651, thirty-seven years later. Gaspard (or Casper) Bauhin (17 January 1560 – 5 December 1624), Johanns brother later wrote his magnum opus
The ‘Pinax theatri botanici’ (English, Illustrated exposition of plants) which is a landmark of botanical history, describing some 6,000 species and classifying them.
Whilst the classification system Gaspard Bauhin
used was not particularly innovative, using traditional groups such as "trees", "shrubs", and "herbs", and for instance grouping spices into the Aromata, he did correctly group grasses and legumes. It is most likely that this is the work which led Carl Linnaeus (inspiration for the Linnean Society) in deference to the Bauhin brothers 200 years earlier to honour Casper and his brother Johann by naming the genus Bauhinia after them in his 1753 Species Plantarum
whose prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. After the legume was named Bauhinia by Linnaeus and documented in his Herbarium in 1755 there is little record of the genus. It is recorded in The Linnean Proceedings of 1858 and 1909. On 7 November 1912, H.N. Ridley addressed the Linnean Society to discuss his discovery of a Bauhinia found in Mount Menuang, Selangor, Malaysia
.
A hybrid of Bauhinia, the Bauhinia blakeana (also known as the Hong Kong Orchid Tree Bauhinia blakeana
), was first discovered in Hong Kong by a French missionary in the 1880s, growing in the grounds of an abandoned house close to the shore near Pokfulam, Hong Kong Island
. The close proximity of the tree to a former habitation led S. T. Dunn, in 1908 (then superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department) to suggest that it was an introduction (but by whom and when?). The missionary collector subsequently propagated it in the grounds of the nearby Pokfulam Sanatorium run by the Missions Étrangères de Paris, and from there it was introduced to the Hong Kong Botanic Gardens and the grounds of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Canton (now Guangzhou). Dunn (1908) subsequently formally named it Bauhinia blakeana in honor of Sir Henry Blake
, Governor of Hong Kong
between 1898 and 1939.
The Hong Kong Orchid Tree is of great horticultural value. It is completely sterile and is shown to be the result of (probably natural hybridization between Bauhinia purpurea
and Bauhinia variegata
. Vegetative propagation
occurs in Bauhinia blakeana, but only artificially, as a result of active horticultural practices such as grafting and rooting of cuttings: there is no evidence that B. blakeana is capable of self-propagating. It has only been perpetuated genetically by artificial horticultural practices and therefore it is not capable of reproducing itself independently. Additionally, there is no evidence that B. blakeana originated more than once, and there is strong circumstantial evidence
suggesting that all trees cultivated today originate from a single ancestor, grown in the Hong Kong Botanic Gardens. It is often called the orchid tree in Hong Kong. The flower of B. blakeana was adopted as the emblem of Hong Kong
in 1965 and since 1997 has been part of the flag of the SAR. How the single ancestor tree came to the shores of Hong Kong remains shrouded in mystery.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. He was a headmaster, explorer and plant collector. This shy and modest man left a legacy which stretched far beyond the shores of Singapore. His influence in the fields of language and education, conservation, exploration and botany has had a lasting impact on the lands of Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra, Indonesia, England and beyond. Through this man’s selfless devotion to his duties both as headmaster, explorer and conservationist, many of the plants we enjoy today in Hong Kong and Asia would not have survived the major human impact. His achievements as an academic and scholar have inspired and influenced many Chinese scholars.
Hullett discovered the plant Bauhinia hullettiihttp://csvh.org/col08/show_species_details.php?record_id=606727 (a synonym for Bauhinia ferruginea var. ferrugineahttp://images.google.com/images?q=Bauhinia%20ferruginea%20ferruginea) on Mount Ophir
Mount Ophir
Mount Ophir, or more commonly known by its Malay name, Gunung Ledang, is a mountain situated in the Gunung Ledang National Park located in Ledang District , Malaysia. The summit is located between the border of Muar and Malacca. Standing at 1,276 m , with a clear trail leading to the peak, the...
in Malaysia.The Bauhinia, an orchid-like plant with beautiful delicate flowers, became his passion. He was an avid collector and likely spent many hours studying it and propagating it. A variant of Bauhinia, known as Bauhinia blakeana
Bauhinia blakeana
Bauhinia blakeana is an orchid tree of the genus Bauhinia with large thick leaves and striking purplish red flowers. The fragrant, orchid-like flowers are usually across, and bloom from early November to the end of March...
, has been adopted by Hong Kong for its national flag
National flag
A national flag is a flag that symbolizes a country. The flag is flown by the government, but usually can also be flown by citizens of the country.Both public and private buildings such as schools and courthouses may fly the national flag...
. Bauhinia blakeana was adopted as the floral emblem
Floral emblem
In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to adopt these symbols - some are conferred by...
of Hong Kong by the Urban Council in 1965. Since 1997 the flower appears on Hong Kong's coat of arm, its flag and its coins. A statue of the flower was presented to the people of Hong Kong by the People’s Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
and is today to be found in Golden Bauhinia Square
Golden Bauhinia Square
The Golden Bauhinia Square is an open area in Wan Chai North, Hong Kong. The square was named after the giant statue of a golden Bauhinia blakeana at the centre of the area, situated outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where the ceremonies for the handover of Hong Kong and the...
in Hong Kong. Although the flowers are bright pinkish purple in colour, they are depicted in white on the flag of Hong Kong. The origins of Bauhinia blakeana are shrouded in mystery. The plant itself is a cross of two variants. It is sterile and the trees we see today all over Hong Kong came from one plant discovered in Hong Kong in the 1880s, possibly the result of one of Hullett’s many experiments in propagation.
Early years
Richmond William Hullett was born on 15 November 1843, in the parish of Allstree in Derbyshire, EnglandDerbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
. He was the third son of The Reverend John Hullett and his wife Cecilia. Hullett had five brothers and one sister. Richmond William Hullett’s father was a clergyman in the parish of Allstree. His father was ordained Deacon of Gloucester in 1838. The Rev John Hullett Snr was a renowned scholar and theologian. He was an undergraduate at St John's College Cambridge in 1834. The Rev John Hullett authored a number of books throughout his life as a country parson. Richmond and his brothers and sister lived a modestly comfortable and educated life in the country parsonage in Allestree, Derbyshire.
Education
As was often the case for the families of country parsons in England at the time the families of clergymen frequently moved around the country because of the needs of parishioners in different dioceses. Often clergyman's children were sent to boarding schoolBoarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
s in order to receive a stable education. Richmond Hullett was sent to Rossall http://www.rossall.co.uk/ boarding school in Lancashire England. At Rossall he excelled and was an exceptional student particularly in mathematics. He won a scholarship to enter Trinity College Cambridge to study maths. He entered Trinity College Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
in 1863 and graduated in 1866 as 31st Wrangler, taking a first-class honours degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in the mathematical Tripos
Cambridge Mathematical Tripos
The Mathematical Tripos is the taught mathematics course at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos that is examined in Cambridge.-Origin:...
http://damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/cowley/.
Employment
Following his graduation from Cambridge UniversityUniversity of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, Hullett secured a teaching post as assistant master at the prestigious Puritan Felsted Grammar School
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
in Essex, England
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. Felsted School
Felsted School
Felsted School, an English co-educational day and boarding independent school, situated in Felsted, Essex. It is in the British Public School tradition, and was founded in 1564 by Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich who, as Lord Chancellor and Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, acquired...
was an ancient and respected educational establishment founded in 1564 by the First Baron Riche. Four of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
's grandsons were pupils here between 1621 and 1674. During Hullett's time here as assistant master under the leadership of Jamaican born headmaster William Stanford Grignon (MA Cantab), Hullett began to show interest in his two lifelong diversified passions; language and botany. Hullett left Felsted Grammar School in 1871 in order to take up a new senior post as principal of Raffles Institution in Singapore.
Headmaster of Raffles Institution
Hullett became the longest serving (1871–1906) and one of the most respected headmasters of Raffles InstitutionRaffles Institution
Raffles Institution , founded in 1823, is the oldest centre for pre-tertiary learning in Singapore. It is an independent school in Singapore providing secondary and pre-university education. RI consists of a boys-only secondary section , and a coeducational pre-university section...
; the Hullett Memorial Library, the Hullett house in the house system, as well as the Hullett block in the Raffles Institution Boarding Complex, are all named in honour of him. During his long and distinguished career at Raffles Institution, Hullett made a mark on the world and his legacy lives today, not only in a number of important flora throughout Singapore, Malaysia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo and China but also by the many words and colloquial expressions that are used in modern day English and Malay language
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
.
Straits Philosophical Society
Hullett was a member of a number of learned societiesLearned society
A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...
. He was a member of the elite Straits Philosophical Society which was founded on 5 March 1893 to engage in critical discussions on philosophy, theology, history, literature, science, and art. The society played a developmental role in the intellectual and cultural life of colonial Singapore
Singapore in the Straits Settlements
Singapore in the Straits Settlements refers to a period in the history of Singapore from 1826 to 1942, during which Singapore was part of the Straits Settlements together with Penang and Malacca. From 1830 to 1867 the Straits Settlements was a residency, or subdivision, of the Presidency of Bengal,...
. Its founding members were Major-General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
Sir Charles Warren
Charles Warren
General Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, FRS was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of Temple Mount...
(president), the Rev. G. M. Reith (secretary and treasurer), John Winfield Bonser, Walter Napier, Henry Nicholas Ridley
Henry Nicholas Ridley
Henry Nicholas Ridley CMG , MA , FRS, FLS, F.R.H.S. was an English botanist and geologist.Born at West Harling Hall, Norfolk, England...
(fellow plant collector and explorer), J. Bromhead Matthews, J. McKillop, D. J. Galloway (Dr), A. Knight, Tan Teck Soon, T. Shelford, G. D. Haviland (Dr), R. N. Bland, and C. W. Kynnersley. The society largely comprised the intellectual elite of the colonial administration. Active membership, which was capped at 15, was opened to Singapore residents only. Priority for admission was given to university graduates, fellows of European learned societies, and people with distinguished merit.
One of the members Tan Teck Soon http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1364_2009-02-12.html was an influential Chinese scholar and past pupil of Hullett who contributed to the reformist impulse within the Chinese community in Singapore around the turn of the 20th century. In 1873, at the age of 14, Tan became the first Straits Chinese
Peranakan
Peranakan Chinese and Baba-Nyonya are terms used for the descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants to the Indonesian archipelago of Nusantara during the Colonial era....
to win the Guthrie Scholarship for Chinese boys, which enabled him to go to Amoy to continue his Chinese studies. At the Raffles Institution, Tan was one of the first pupils of Hullett, the influential principal, who made a deep impression on Tan and inspired him to further his education. Tan purchased a newspaper, the Daily Advertiser, as a vehicle for communicating to the public their ideas about the need for reform within the Chinese community. Tan was editor and proprietor of the paper from 1890 to 1894. In it he tried to keep the local Chinese community abreast of political and cultural developments in China. Tan was involved in running the Singapore Chinese Educational Institute from 1891, the inaugural lecture for which was given by Tan’s old school master, Hullett. Another of Hullett's pupils was the respected Lim Boon Keng
Lim Boon Keng
Lim Boon Keng, OBE was a Chinese doctor who promoted social and educational reforms in Singapore and China. Lim was of Chinese Peranakan descent, with ancestry from Hai Teng district in Fujian, China.-Early life:...
, OBE a Chinese doctor who promoted social and educational reforms in Singapore and China. Lim Boon Keng studied medicine at Edinburgh University
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
in the UK.
The Linnean Society
Because of Hullett’s passion for plant collectingPlant collecting
Plant collecting involves procuring live or dried plant specimens, for the purposes of research, cultivation or as a hobby.-Collection of live specimens:...
, recording and discovery of new plant species, Hullett was made a Fellow of The Linnean Society (FLS). He remained a member until 1909. The Linnean Society of London
Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is the world's premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. It publishes a zoological journal, as well as botanical and biological journals...
is among the oldest of London's Learned Societies and is the world's oldest active organisation devoted exclusively to natural history.
The Straits branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
Hullett made many contributions to the Straits branch of the Royal Asiatic SocietyRoyal Asiatic Society
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was established, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society...
. The Royal Asiatic Society was founded in 1823 by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Henry Colebrooke and a group of likeminded individuals. It received its Royal Charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
from King George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
in the same year 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. The Straits branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was formed by a group of colonial administrators, the Society enjoyed the patronage of top-ranking officials, Governors of the Straits Settlements
Straits Settlements
The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia.Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under direct British control as a crown colony on 1 April 1867...
, Prime Ministers of Malaysia and Singapore and the Sultan of Brunei. Hullett’s good friend and fellow plant collector Henry Nicholas Ridley was also amongst its council members. Apart from enjoying elite patronage, the Society during the colonial period received government grants, donations from the Sultans of the Malay States, franking privileges
Franking
Franking are any and all devices or markings such as postage stamps , printed or stamped impressions, codings, labels, manuscript writings , and/or any other authorized form of markings affixed or applied to mails to qualify them to be postally serviced.-Franking types and...
, government provision of premises and facilities for printing and map-making.
Hullett's Achievements
During breaks in the academic calendar for school holidaySchool holiday
School holidays are the periods during which schools are closed for study. The dates and periods of school holidays vary considerably throughout the world, and there is usually some variation even within the same jurisdiction.- Christmas holiday :In countries with a predominantly Judeo-Christian...
s, whenever Hullett had the opportunity he would embark on a number of exciting and sometimes rather dangerous expeditions to collect and record exotic plants. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s Hullett was a prolific plant collector and intrepid explorer. Many of his significant plant discoveries were found on Mt Ophir (4,186 ft/1,276m) in Malaysia, ancient history
Ancient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
points to the mountain being the site of rich gold deposits. Although today Mount Ophir is one of the most popular and most climbed mountains, in Hullett's day it was a significant trek and often a dangerous expedition.
Hullett's plants
Another important plant brought back to China from Mount Ophir by Hullett was a variant of ImpatiensImpatiens
Impatiens is a genus of about 850–1,000 species of flowering plants, widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and tropics. Together with the puzzling Hydrocera triflora, this genus makes up the family Balsaminaceae...
(Busy Lizzie
Busy Lizzie
Impatiens walleriana Hook.f. also known as Busy Lizzy, Balsam or simply Impatiens, is native to eastern Africa from Kenya to Mozambique. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 15-60 cm tall, with broad lanceolate leaves 3-12 cm long and 2-5 cm broad...
).
In 1956 in a seeming case of ‘plant envy’ it appears that Hullett was (perhaps erroneously) blamed for the inadvertent release to other areas of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
Linaria alpina
Linaria alpina
Linaria alpina, sometimes called alpine toadflax, is a purple-flowered member of the genus Linaria. It is found in many mountain ranges in southern and central Europe from the Sierra de Gredos and the Montes de León in Spain to the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula including the Jura...
. The following is an extract taken from the original article which apportions blame to Hullett because of the use of ‘old rough drying paper’ to transport the seedlings
"Another singular case of distribution, too strange to be true, is that of Linaria alpina DC. found on Mt Ophir in Malaya, by HULLETT. The sheet contains one miserable 5 cm long flowering branch which can exactly be matched with European specimens. It is glued on the sheet and Mr VAN DER WERFF did not succeed in finding on a tiny fragment, aerial diatoms which might give a clue. Although the locality was very well known in the field, RIDLEY and nobody else has succeeded in recollect Linaria alpina there. The habitat, a wet place would ecologically be abnormal. Personally I am convinced that this specimen has been erroneously localized, the error in all probability having arisen by the use of old, rough drying paper which had been employed formerly in Europe and was brought along to Malaya and to which this tiny specimen adhered and escaped attention until it was loosened with the Mt Ophir collection of HULLETT"
Citrus Halimii
One of the most significant and perhaps curious cases of lost plants is that of the wild Malaysian citrus tree believed to be 12 million years old (now endangered). Citrus halimii (a close relative of the kumquatKumquat
Cumquats or kumquats are a group of small fruit-bearing trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, either forming the genus Fortunella, or placed within Citrus sensu lato...
and pomelo
Pomelo
The pomelo is a citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia. It is usually pale green to yellow when ripe, with sweet white flesh and very thick albedo . It is the largest citrus fruit, 15–25 cm in diameter, and usually weighing 1–2 kg...
variety of citrus), was collected by William Tatton Egerton on Mount Ophir, 28 December 1902. In a letter to Henry Nicholas Ridley Egerton writes:
Dear Ridley,
I send to you by Hullett some leaves and fruit of a mountain lemon or citron found growing in primaeval jungle at a height of 2200 feet about 2 miles from the Burkit Tangga Pass to Jelebu. It may well be unknown but I expect to hear that you know it well.
Yours sincerely,
W. Egerton
28/12/02
The Residency,
Seremban
Prior to human cultivation the genus citrus originated in South East Asia and consisted of just a few specimens. The leaves and fruit were brought back by Hullett but they seemed to have been ‘lost’ for over 70 years, quite what happened to them nobody knows., However when the seedling was ‘rediscovered’ in the Herbarium of the Botanic Gardens Singapore, it was documented, and named in 1973. Erroneous labelling of some specimens may account for the seeming disappearance of some varieties of plants. Important varieties of Hullett’s collection remain to this day in the Herbarium of the Botanic Gardens Singapore. Citrus halimii, was named after the King of Malaysia His Majesty Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda Yang DiPertuan Agong of Malaysia.
Hullett and Ridley also collected plants on the granite island of Pulau Uban, Singapore. The original vegetation probably consisted of lowland forest and mangrove swamps. Today much of the original vegetation has been cleared. Nearly 600 out of 2,257 native plants are now extinct; deforestation and disturbance have been the main causes of plant species extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
in Singapore. During Hullett's collection on the island he discovered the Canavalis bean, seeds of which are in the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens, they were recorded in 1922 in Stanley and Lantao Island.
Macaranga hullettii (The Ant Plant)
MacarangaMacaranga
Macaranga is a large genus of Old World tropical trees of the family Euphorbiaceae and the only genus in the subtribe Macaranginae. Native to Africa, Australasia, Asia and the South Pacific, the genus comprises over 300 different species. These plants are noted for being recolonizers...
, which occurs predominantly in Malaysia, Borneo, and Sumatra, is the world's largest genus of pioneer trees. It grows in small gaps, along riverbanks, roadsides, and in logged areas. Macaranga hullettii tree species known from the Malay Archipelago
Malay Archipelago
The Malay Archipelago refers to the archipelago between mainland Southeastern Asia and Australia. The name was derived from the anachronistic concept of a Malay race....
are colonized by specific ants which are required for the successful pollination of this specific Macaranga tree. Without Hullett's discovery of one of the popular Euphorbia varieties of plants we may not have the distribution in Southeast Asia which we enjoy today, specifically continuation of M. hullettii is most important for the colony of tiny ants which require this to survive. Hullett spent a considerable time plant collecting in Indonesia particularly in Sindang Laya in Java. Here Hullett found a species, Erechtites
Erechtites
Erechtites is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family known commonly as fireweeds or burnweeds. They are native to the Americas, but some species are widely distributed weeds. Some species in this genus are treated as members of Senecio by some authors, and several other species are...
valerianifoliahttp://www.jstor.org/pss/4117934, which is known for its medicinal properties and its ability to induce sleep.
The later years
Hullett was the author of a book entitled ‘English sentences with equivalents in colloquial Malay’ 1887. After Hullett retired in 1906 as principal from Raffles Institution he became inspector of schools in the Straits settlement and director of public instruction in Singapore. Hullett died in Wandsworth, London UK in 1914.Hullett's legacy
Hullett's legacy has stretched beyond Southeast Asia, but his major contributions were to Hong Kong, Sumatra, Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia and Singapore. Recently in field studies in Hong Kong ferns which may have been discovered by Hullett were rediscovered. The earliest reported survey of Hong Kong plants was in 1841 documented by Bentham in 1861.In 2001 the Hong Kong Herbarium published the Checklist of Hong Kong Plants four times. The most recent checklist (2002) shows that 242 fern species have been recorded in Hong Kong. There have been great changes in the environment, vegetation and species of Hong Kong since the Opium Wars
Opium Wars
The Opium Wars, also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, divided into the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842 and the Second Opium War from 1856 to 1860, were the climax of disputes over trade and diplomatic relations between China under the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire...
. Although documented extinctions of species are few, it is certain that some species have disappeared from Hong Kong because of the massive human impact, and complete deforestation at low altitudes must have resulted in the loss of a substantial fraction of Hong Kong’s native flora in the past. Nevertheless, on a more positive note in a recent survey on the biodiversity of Hong Kong during 1996 to 2002, four fern species were ‘rediscovered’ 100 years after they were first collected.
The story of how the Bauhinia arrived in Hong Kong - A short botanical history
The story of how Bauhinia arrived in Hong Kong takes us back more than 500 years, to a time of plague, pirates and perseverance, for it was a time when early botanists began to make their mark on the world. The earliest printed herbal to include a series of plant illustrations: The Herbarium Apulei, Rome, circa 1481- was one of the most widely used, and most practical, remedy books of the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. It describes 131 plants, giving a multitude of prescriptions for maladies, ranging from madness, paralysis, dysentery, fertility, stomach ache
Abdominal pain
Abdominal pain can be one of the symptoms associated with transient disorders or serious disease. Making a definitive diagnosis of the cause of abdominal pain can be difficult, because many diseases can result in this symptom. Abdominal pain is a common problem...
and ulcers, to antidotes for various poisons. Similarly, Macer Floridus's ‘De viribus herbarum carmen’, Milan, is considered the first printed herbal, with poems describing the medicinal and dietary properties of 77 herbs. The Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
saw an immense increase in botanic study and publication. Perhaps the most celebrated botanical work ever printed was written by Leonard Fuchs (a physician who gained his initial fame by finding a cure for the English sweating sickness
Sweating sickness
Sweating sickness, also known as "English sweating sickness" or "English sweate" , was a mysterious and highly virulent disease that struck England, and later continental Europe, in a series of epidemics beginning in 1485. The last outbreak occurred in 1551, after which the disease apparently...
) ‘De historia stirpium’, Basel, 1542 (or, Notable commentaries on the history of plants) was first published in 1542. A massive, folio volume, this landmark work describes in Latin some 497 plants, and is illustrated by over 500 woodcuts based upon first-hand observation, this provided the first comprehensive study of plants. The Historia is undoubtedly Fuchs' greatest work, and is without equal among the herb books of that era. A labour of love some thirty one years in the making.
Within a short period, botanical texts were being published throughout Europe. Notable contributors and contemporaries of Fuchs to the advancement of botany are Hieronymus Bock’s ‘De stirpium commentariorum libri tres’, Strassburg, 1552. Hieronymus Bock
Hieronymus Bock
Hieronymus Bock was a German botanist, physician, and Lutheran minister who began the transition from medieval botany to the modern scientific worldview by arranging plants by their relation or resemblance....
(1498–1554), who directed the botanical garden in Zweibrücken, Germany
Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river.- Name :Zweibrücken appears in Latin texts as Geminus Pons and Bipontum, in French texts as Deux-Ponts. The name derives from Middle High German Zweinbrücken...
, was a close observer of nature, he was probably the first botanist of the 16th century to feel the necessity of some sort of classification. Bock did not limit his descriptions to the flowering stage of the plants, but described them accurately at various stages in development, providing a concise life-history of each plant. His observations on plant communities
Biocoenosis
A biocoenosis , coined by Karl Möbius in 1877, describes the interacting organisms living together in a habitat . This term is rarely used in English, as this concept has not been popularized in Anglophone countries...
foreshadowed the modern science of ecology. In fact, Bock was the first to have recorded the seasons of annual flowering, and he is regarded as the earliest forerunner of Linnaeus, who, as we shall see later was important in naming Bauhinia.
After Bock came Otto Brunfels’s ‘Herbarum vivae eicones ad naturae imitationem’, Strassburg, 1531–36 and the next generation of scientists, from the great Flemish botanist Rembert Dodoens
Rembert Dodoens
Rembert Dodoens was a Flemish physician and botanist, also known under his Latinized name Rembertus Dodonaeus.-Biography:...
to Italy's Pietro Andrea Mattioli
Pietro Andrea Mattioli
Pietro Andrea Gregorio Mattioli was a doctor and naturalist born in Siena.He received his MD at the University of Padua in 1523, and subsequently practiced the profession in Siena, Rome, Trento and Gorizia, becoming personal physician of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria in Prague and Ambras...
were born. Johann Bauhin
Johann Bauhin
Johann Bauhin was a Swiss botanist.He studied botany at Tübingen under Leonhart Fuchs . He then travelled with Conrad Gessner, after which he started a practise of medicine at Basel, where he was elected Professor of Rhetoric in 1566...
(1541–1630) who was a student of Leonard Fuchs wrote an equally weighty tome the ‘Historia plantarum universalis’, a compilation of all that was then known about botany, this was incomplete at his death, but was published at Yverdon in 1650-1651, thirty-seven years later. Gaspard (or Casper) Bauhin (17 January 1560 – 5 December 1624), Johanns brother later wrote his magnum opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
The ‘Pinax theatri botanici’ (English, Illustrated exposition of plants) which is a landmark of botanical history, describing some 6,000 species and classifying them.
Whilst the classification system Gaspard Bauhin
Gaspard Bauhin
Gaspard Bauhin, or Caspar Bauhin , was a Swiss botanist who wrote Pinax theatri botanici , which described thousands of plants and classified them in a manner that draws comparisons to the later binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus...
used was not particularly innovative, using traditional groups such as "trees", "shrubs", and "herbs", and for instance grouping spices into the Aromata, he did correctly group grasses and legumes. It is most likely that this is the work which led Carl Linnaeus (inspiration for the Linnean Society) in deference to the Bauhin brothers 200 years earlier to honour Casper and his brother Johann by naming the genus Bauhinia after them in his 1753 Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work by Carl Linnaeus. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. This means that the first names to be considered validly published in botany are those that appear...
whose prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. After the legume was named Bauhinia by Linnaeus and documented in his Herbarium in 1755 there is little record of the genus. It is recorded in The Linnean Proceedings of 1858 and 1909. On 7 November 1912, H.N. Ridley addressed the Linnean Society to discuss his discovery of a Bauhinia found in Mount Menuang, Selangor, Malaysia
Selangor
Selangor also known by its Arabic honorific, Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity") is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east, Negeri Sembilan to the south and the Strait of Malacca to the west...
.
A hybrid of Bauhinia, the Bauhinia blakeana (also known as the Hong Kong Orchid Tree Bauhinia blakeana
Bauhinia blakeana
Bauhinia blakeana is an orchid tree of the genus Bauhinia with large thick leaves and striking purplish red flowers. The fragrant, orchid-like flowers are usually across, and bloom from early November to the end of March...
), was first discovered in Hong Kong by a French missionary in the 1880s, growing in the grounds of an abandoned house close to the shore near Pokfulam, Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km², as of 2008...
. The close proximity of the tree to a former habitation led S. T. Dunn, in 1908 (then superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department) to suggest that it was an introduction (but by whom and when?). The missionary collector subsequently propagated it in the grounds of the nearby Pokfulam Sanatorium run by the Missions Étrangères de Paris, and from there it was introduced to the Hong Kong Botanic Gardens and the grounds of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Canton (now Guangzhou). Dunn (1908) subsequently formally named it Bauhinia blakeana in honor of Sir Henry Blake
Henry Arthur Blake
Sir Henry Arthur Blake GCMG, DL was a British colonial administrator, Governor of Hong Kong from 1898 to 1903.-Early life and career:...
, Governor of Hong Kong
Governor of Hong Kong
The Governor of Hong Kong was the head of the government of Hong Kong during British rule from 1843 to 1997. The governor's roles were defined in the Hong Kong Letters Patent and Royal Instructions...
between 1898 and 1939.
The Hong Kong Orchid Tree is of great horticultural value. It is completely sterile and is shown to be the result of (probably natural hybridization between Bauhinia purpurea
Bauhinia purpurea
Bauhinia purpurea is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to South China and Southeast Asia. Common names include Hong Kong Orchid Tree, Purple camel's foot, and Hawaiian orchid tree.-Description:...
and Bauhinia variegata
Bauhinia variegata
Bauhinia variegata is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to southeastern Asia, from southern China west to Pakistan and India. Common names include Orchid tree, Camel's Foot Tree and Mountain-ebony...
. Vegetative propagation
Vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction in plants. It is a process by which new individuals arise without production of seeds or spores...
occurs in Bauhinia blakeana, but only artificially, as a result of active horticultural practices such as grafting and rooting of cuttings: there is no evidence that B. blakeana is capable of self-propagating. It has only been perpetuated genetically by artificial horticultural practices and therefore it is not capable of reproducing itself independently. Additionally, there is no evidence that B. blakeana originated more than once, and there is strong circumstantial evidence
Circumstantial evidence
Circumstantial evidence is evidence in which an inference is required to connect it to a conclusion of fact, like a fingerprint at the scene of a crime...
suggesting that all trees cultivated today originate from a single ancestor, grown in the Hong Kong Botanic Gardens. It is often called the orchid tree in Hong Kong. The flower of B. blakeana was adopted as the emblem of Hong Kong
Coat of arms of Hong Kong
The Regional Emblem of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China came into use on 1 July 1997, after Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China....
in 1965 and since 1997 has been part of the flag of the SAR. How the single ancestor tree came to the shores of Hong Kong remains shrouded in mystery.