322 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
Meibomia umbellata. Bush TICK-TREFOIL, 
LocAL NAMES.—Palaga hilitai (Guam); Lali (Samoa), 
A shrub 1 to 2 meters high growing on the seabeach, with densely downy young 
branches, 3-foliolate leaves, and axillary umbels of whitish papilionaceous flowers. 
Branches terete; petioles 2.5 cm. or less long, slightly furrowed; leaflets subcoria- 
ceous with raised costate veins, green and glabrous above, thinly gray-canescent or 
nearly glabrescent beneath, end leaflet larger than side ones, roundish, or broad- 
oblong, 5 to 7.5 em. long; umbels 6 to 12-flowered; pedicels short, unequal; calyx 4 
mim. long, densely silky, 4-parted, 2-bracted; bracts minute, deciduous; standard of 
corolla obovate, keel blunt; stamens monadelphous; pod jointed, 3.5 to 5 em. long, 
the joints 8 to 5, thick, glabrescent or silky, indented at both sutures. 
A strand shrub of wide tropical distribution. Common near the beach in Guam. 
Samoa, Fiji, and the Malay Archipelago. In Samoa it is used for perches for pet 
fruit pigeons, The Guam name means ‘ lizard’s bush.’’ 
REFERENCES: 
Meibomia taubellata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 1: 197. 1891. 
Fledysariwin winbellation LL. Sp. Pl. 2: 747. 1753. 
Desmodium wmbellatum DC. Prod. 2: 325. 1825, 
Melastoma denticulata. Same as Velastoma mariannum. 
Melastoma marianum. MELASTOMA. 
Family Melastomataceae. 
LocaL NAMEs.—Gafau ((ruam). 
A low, hairy shrub growing on the coast, deseribed by Charles Naudin in his 
monograph of the Melastomataceae from specimens collected near Agafia by Hombron 
and Le Guillou, It is injurious tochickens. Where it grows they can not be raised. 
It is erect and branching with flowers comparatively small for this genus, short 
stamens usually corresponding in number with the petals; branches rust-colored, 
with appressed stiff hairs and scurfy scales at last falling off; leaves oblong-ovate, 
acuminate, acute, almost entire, 5-nerved with a marginal nerve on each side, the 
blade on both surfaces covered with small stiff appressed sharp hairs; flowers at the 
apex of the branches, subcorymbose, 5-merous; anthers obtuse, the connective of all 
with a simply articulate filament. 
This plant at first glance resembles MM. denticulatiin,; it is different, however, on 
account of the structure of the connective of the anthers and some other characters. 
The stem sometimes almost simple, more frequently branching, those examined by 
Naudin a half meter long; leaves 4 to 7 em. in length; calyx covered with chaffy 
hairs, with 5 ovate lobes almost equal in length to the tube, with minute teeth 
between the divisions; petals broadly ovate, somewhat notched at the apex, about 
12 mm. long and broad; anthers very short for this genus, oblong-ovoid, obtuse; the 
connective of the larger ones beneath the cells short, not very much curved, not 
manifestly thickened nor bilobed at the insertion of the filament; that of the smaller 
ones scarcely perceptible; fruit a berry, 5-celled and of nearly the size of a pea.@ 
REFERENCES: 
Melastomea mariunun Naud, Ann, Se. Nat. P11. 18: 276. 1849. 
Melastoma medinillana Gaudich. Same as Medinilla rosea. 
Melastomataceae. MELASTOMA FAMILY. 
This family is represented in Guam by Melastoma marianim and Medinilla rosea. 
Melia azedarach. Pripke or Inpra. CHINABERRY. 
Family Meliaceae. 
LocaL NAMES.—Paraiso (Guam; Mexico; Philippines); Jacinto (Panama); Arbol 
de Paraiso (Spanish); Persian Lilac (India); Syrian Bead Tree (Mediterra- 
nean ). 
“Charles Naudin, Monograph of the Melastomataceae, Ann. Sci. Nat., ser. 5., vol. 
13, p. 276, 1849. 
