200 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
2 or 3-lobed, divisions rounded; petals 5, united at the base together with the sta- 
mens into a tube; ovary nearly sessile; style very short; stigma oblique; pod short- 
stemmed, obovate, curved, hard, drupe-like, one-seeded. 
In Polynesia the seed is eaten cooked when not quite ripe, and tastes much like 
a chestnut. In some islands it is preserved, like the breadfruit, in pits, where it is 
left to ferment. In Samoa it is a staple food for several months of the year. The 
bark of the tree is astringent. The wood is perishable and is of little economic value. 
REFERENCES: 
Bocoa edulis ( Forst.) Baill. Adansonia 9: 237. 1868-70. 
Inocarpus edulis Forst. Char. Gen. 66. t. 33. 1776. 
Boehmeria candolleana Gaudich. Same as Pipturus argenteus. 
Boehmeria paniculata. Same as Schychowskya ruderalis, 
Boehmeria tenacissima. RueEa. 
Family Urticaceae. 
Local NAMES.—Amahayan, Amahadyan (Guam); Labnis, Arimay, Amiray 
(Philippines); Oramai (Ponape); Lafai (Solomon Islands). 
A shrub or small tree with alternate, broadly ovate, acuminate, 3-nerved leaves, 
green above, white beneath, with dentate margins. Flowers minute, green, monce- 
cious, in axillary panicles, with numerous sessile flower-heads along the entire length 
of the branches of the inflorescence; male flowers in the axils of the lower leaves; 
perianth 4-partite; stamens 4, opposite the perianth lobes; female flowers in the axils 
of the upper leaves; perianth gamophyllous, tubular, hairy, 4-dentate at the contracted 
mouth; style much exserted, hairy; ovary inclosed completely by the perianth; 
stigma papillose, on one side of the style; achene inclosed in the perianth, the peri- 
carp crustaceous. 
This plant is indigenous to the island. It differs from the allied Boehmeria nivea 
in its more robust habit of growth, in its larger leaves, the lower surface of which is 
white, but not covered with the thick felt-like coating of that species, and in being 
shrubby instead of herbaceous. It was collected in Guam by Gaudichaud, who 
described it as having ‘‘feuilles tomenteuses et argentees au-dessous,”’ and growing 
near the seashore; but he confused its vernacular name, ‘‘amahayan’”’ with that of 
an allied plant called ‘“‘sayiafi,”’ having ovate, cordate, acuminate leaves, the petioles 
and lower surface of veins being covered with reddish pubescence, while the veins 
of the amahayan are smooth. 
This species is figured by Wight.’ The form growing in Guam has leayes more 
finely serrate on the margin than in his figure. 
Boehmeria nivec is essentially a plant of temperate climates, and yields the ‘“‘ramie’’ 
fiber from which ‘China grass cloth’? is made. The name ‘rhea’? should be con- 
fined to the fiber obtained from the tropical species. In Guam the plant is not 
utilized by the natives for textile purposes, but they use the bark as a remedy in 
certain diseases. An interesting account of the methods of cultivation and of 
extracting the fiber of Boehmeria nivea is given by Charles Richards Dodge in his 
catalogue of the Useful Fibre Plants of the World. ¢ 
To be suitable for fiber purposes the stems should be unbranched. The trees 
or shrubs growing alone branch freely. In cultivation they should be planted close 
together, so as to throw up straight shoots, as in the case of hemp. 
REFERENCES: 
Boehmeria tenacissima Gaudich. Bot. Freye. Voy. 500. 1826. 
Urtica tenacissina Roxb. Hort. Beng. 67. 1814 (ex Ind. Kew.); Fl. Ind. 3: 
590. 1832. 
Boehmeria nivea tenacissina (Roxb.) Miq. Fl. Ind. Bot. 12: 253. 1859. 
“ Narrative of Freycinet’s Expedition, 1825. 
6 Ieones, vol. 2, pl. 688, 1842. 
¢ Report No. 9, U. 8. Department of Agriculture, 1897, 
