198 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
hairy, with heart-shaped lobed leaves and yellow flowers, the male flowers with 
long stalks, the female almost stalkless. Cultivated in the gardens of Guam for the 
fruit, which is cooked asa vegetable and also as a ‘‘dulce.”’ 
REFERENCES: 
Benincasa cerifera Savi, Bibl. Ital. 9: 158. 1818 (ex Ind, Kew.). 
Benne. See Sesamum orientale. 
Berbena (Guam). See fHeliotropium indicum. 
Berengena (Spanish). See Solanum melongena. 
Berenghenas ((iuam). See Solanwm melongena. 
Bergamot. See Citrus aurantium bergamia, 
Bermuda grass. See Capriola dactylon. 
Beta vulgaris (the common beet). See Gardens. 
Betel leaf. See Piper bLetle. 
Betelnut. See Areca cathecu. 
Betel pepper. See Piper betle. 
Biancaea sappan. SAPPAN. 
LocAL NAMES.—Sibukao, Sibucao (Gvuam and Philippines); Palo del Brazil 
(Spanish). 
A thorny shrub or small tree with racemes of showy yellow flowers. Leaves 
abruptly bipinnate; pinnze 20 to 24; spines on rachis of leaves at base of pinnze and 
stipulary spines at base of petioles; leaflets 20 to 80, small oblong, very oblique; 
stamens woolly; pods short, broad (7.5 to 10 em. long by 4 em. broad), oblique, 
woody, with recurved beak at the upper angle, 3 or 4 seeded, 
This species was introduced into Guam at least a century ago, It grows readily 
on the island, and boundary hedges composed of it have spread into thickets in many 
places. Its heartwood yields a fine red dye, which is extensively used in India, and 
it is exported from Ceylon. The bark and the root are also used for dyeing. The 
wood is an astringent and contains tannic and gallic acids. It is used medicinally in 
India. In Guam the natives make little use of it, as it requires considerable labor to 
separate the heart from the rest of the wood. It could be grown with success on the 
island, as it spreads there of its own accord and requires little or no attention. Owing 
to the ease with which it grows and its thick habit of growth, it is used for defining 
the boundaries of land. The wood takes a fine polish and does not warp nor crack. 
In preparing the wood for dyeing it is cut into chips, which are pounded and boiled 
for several hours in water. [t yields a red color, which is intensified by alkalies. 
For dyeing cotton tannin and alum are used as mordants, for wool a mixture of alum 
and cream of tartar. In India it is combined with indigo to produce a purple dye 
and with turmeric and sulphate of iron to produce a rich maroon, A dye is extracted 
from the bark of the trunk and roots by boiling, and the pods are used, like those 
of several other allied species, together with the protosulphate of iron, to make an 
ink or black dye. 
REFERENCES: 
Biancaea sappan (.) Todaro, Hort. Bot. Pan. 1: 3. 1876. 
Caesalpinia sappan LL. Sp. Pl. 1: 381. 1753. 
The type of the Linnzean genus Caesalpinia, to which this species was referred by 
Linneeus, and by nearly all authors since his time, is C. brasiliensis LL. Sp. Pl. ed. 1. 
1: 380. 1753, so far as it relates to the species of Plumier, from whom Linnzeus adopted 
the genus with a slight modification in the spelling of the name. It is not, however, 
Caesalpinia brasiliensis L. Sp. Pl. ed. 2. 1: 544. 1762, which is an unarmed tree and 
does not belong to the same genus as Plumier’s species, but under the specific name 
linnaei has in part usually been referred to Peltophorum. Neither should the original 
Caesalpinia brasiliensis, though named (. crista by Linnveus Sp. Pl. ed. 2. 1: 544. 1762, 
be confused with C. crista L. Sp. Pl. ed. 1. 1: 380. 1753, which is Guilandina crista 
