229 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
the leaves, which are bitter, are toasted and given in infusion to children in bowel 
complaints and fevers, and they are applied as a remedy for bruises to check 
inflammation. On the Malabar coast the plant is one of the remedies for leprosy, 
for which it is said to be an excellent specific.¢ In southern Africa and in India it 
is used as an alterative to purify the blood. It is said to be of value in syphilitic and 
scrofulous affections. 
REFERENCES: 
Centella asiatica (L.) Urban in Mart. Fl. Bras. 11!: 287. 1879. 
Hydrocotyle asiatica 1. Sp. Pl. 1: 234. 1753. 
Centotheca lappacea. BurRGRAss. 
Family Poaceae. 
A tall perennial grass, with broadly lanceolate tessellately nerved leaves and a 
branched woody rootstock. Spikelets 1 or 2-flowered, secund on the long branches of 
a lax subsimple panicle, not jointed on the very short pedicels; rachilla jointed at 
the base of and between the flowering glumes; glumes 5, the empty pair oblong- 
ovate, keeled, 3 to 5-nerved, persistent; flowering glumes oblong, acute, dorsally 
rounded, 7-nerved, naked or the upper bearing above the middle soft, erect, at length 
deflexed, tuberculate-based spines; palea shorter than the glume, its keels ciliolate; 
lodicules none; stamens 2 or 3, anthers short; styles free; grain ovoid, acute, terete, 
free. The leaves of this grass are 10 to 25 em. long by about 3 em, broad, many- 
nerved, glabrous or sparsely hairy, midrib oblique, sheath glabrous or hairy, ligule 
short, lacerate; panicle 20 to 25 em. long and broad, branches smooth; spikelets 3.5 
to 6 mm. long, green; rachilla scaberulous; paleze often decurrent on the rachilla 
below the glume. The upper palea is rather firm, very sharply 2-keeled, and even 
at the time of flowering bow-shaped and bent outward. 
The species is of wide tropical distribution. It grows near the beach and in damp 
upland regions. It is an excellent fodder grass. It is common in central India and 
southward to Malacea, in the Andaman Islands and Ceylon, China, tropical Africa, 
and the Philippines. In the Pacific it has been collected in Samoa, Admiralty 
Islands, and the Caroline group. 
REFERENCES: 
Centotheca lappacea (L.) Desy. Nouv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 2: 189, 1810. 
Cenchrus lappaceus L. Sp. Pl. ed. 2. 2: 1488. 1763. 
Ceratopteris gaudichaudii. Same as Ceratopteris thalictroides. 
Ceratopteris thalictroides. WATER FERN. 
LocaL NAMES. —Umug sensonyan (Guam); Midsu warabi (Japan). 
An aquatic fern with divided fronds, eaten in Guam asa salad and in Japan asa 
pot herb. The divisions of the fertile fronds are linear and much narrower than 
those of the sterile ones, 
REFERENCES: 
Ceratopteris thalictroides (L.) Brogn. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1821: 186, pl. (1). 
1821. 
Acrostichum thalictroides LL. Sp. Pl. 2: 1070. 1753. 
Cestrum nocturnum. NIGHT-BLOOMING CESTRUM, 
Family Solanaceae. 
Local NAmes.—Dama de noche (Guam and Philippines); Galan de noche 
(Cuba). 
A glabrous shrub with greenish yellow tubular flowers which are very fragrant at 
night. Leaves alternate, entire, ovate or ovate-oblong, with a rather blunt point; 
racemes cymose, peduncled, exceeding the petiole; inferior pedicels often as long as 
the calyx; calyx 5-dentate, about one-third as long as the corolla-tube; teeth ovate, 
roundish, or deltoid; corolla-tube clavate, gradually tapering, glabrous; lobes ovate. 
“Drury, Useful Plants, India, p. 257, 
