326 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
oblong fruit containing seeds surrounded by a red aril, Stems more or less hairy; 
lobes of leaves sinuate-toothed, more or less hairy on the under side when young; 
peduncles slender with a kidney-shaped bracteole, which in the male ones is aboye 
the middle and in the female near the base; flowers of medium size, pale yellow; 
fruits bursting open when ripe, showing the red aril. 
Cultivated in Guam, running along fences, ete. The fruit is bitter, but not 
unwholesome. In India it is eaten in curries, Before cooking it must be steeped in 
salt water. The plant is used as an external remedy in leprosy and malignant ulcers. 
REFERENCES: 
Momordica charantia 1. Sp. Pl. 2: 1009. 1753. 
Monggo (Philippines), See Phaseolus Mun yo. 
Monggos ((iuam). See Phaseolus mungo. 
Monggos paloma (Guam). Local name for Cleome viscosa. 
Monkey-pod (Honolulu). See Pithecolobiim seman. 
Monkey-pod, sweet. See Pithecolobinm dulce. 
Moraceae. MULBERRY FAMILY. 
This family is represented in Guam by the genera Artocarpus and Ficus. 
Morinda citrifolia. INDIAN MvLperry.@ Phare xvi. 
Family Rubiaceae. 
Local NAmes.—Ladda, Lada (Guam); Nino (Philippines); Nona (Malay Archi- 
pelago); Nuna (Southern India); Nono (Rarotonga, Tahiti): Nonu (Samoa) 
Noni (Hawaii); Urati (Solomon Islands); Kura (Fiji). 
A small tree widely spread over the Pacific, the Malay Archipelago, southern 
India, and the west coast of Africa; in India yielding the sl dye of commerce, for 
which purpose it is there cultivated. Branchlets 4-angled; leaves large, glossy, 
ovate, attenuate at each end, short-petioled, with broad, membranous stipules, con- 
nate below into a loose sheath inclosing the peduncle; peduncles solitary, Opposite 
, 
the leaves, rarely binate, or ternate at the ends of the branches; flowers 5-merous, 
growing in globose heads, white, the calyx tube short; corolla tube 12 mm. or less 
long, lobes glabrous, fusiform in bud, throat pubescent; fruit of many drupes coales- 
cent into a fleshy globose or ovoid head, inclosing many cartilaginous or bony 
l-seeded pyrenes. 
The seeds of this species are especially interesting, owing to their possession of a 
distinct air chamber or vesicle, which renders them buoyant and capable of being 
transported to great distances by ocean currents. Not only have they been found 
in the débris cast up at the high-water mark alone tropical shores, but experiments 
have been made which demonstrate the great length of time they will float in salt 
water. ¢ 
In Guam the tree is used for dyeing, though, owing to the trouble of preparing it, 
the dye is not now so extensively used as before the introduction of coal-tar dyes 
into the island. Both a red and a yellow color are obtainable, the bark of the root 
being the source of the best red dye, the root itself vielding a yellow dye. 
The fruit is eaten in many of the Pacific islands, but it is insipid and very full of 
seeds. In India it is gathered green and forms an ingredient in the curries of the 
natives. 
REFERENCES: 
Morinda citrifolia L. Sp. Pl. 1: 176. 1753. 
«Watt, EKeonomie Products of India, vol. 5, p. 261, 1891. 
bSee Schimper, Die indo-malayische Strandtlora, p. 165, pl. vil, fiz. 26, band ©, 1891, 
‘Guppy, The dispersal of plants, ete., Trans. of the Victoria Institute, 1890, 
