356 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
From the fibrous inner bark of this species the Samoans make their red, shaggy, 
rug-like mats and their nets and fishing lines. The fiber is of fine texture and great 
strength, but difficult to prepare. In Australia it is known as the Queensland 
grass-cloth plant, or native mulberry. It was first collected on Guam by Gaudichaud. 
The fiber is not utilized on this island. From the allied mamake the Hawaiians 
made bark-cloth or ‘‘tapa.’? The bark yields a brown dye. 
REFERENCES: 
Pipturus argenteus (Forst.) Wedd. in DC. Prod. 161; 235", 1869, 
Urtica argentea Forst. Prod. 65. 1786. 
Pipturus propinquus. Same as Piplurus argenteus. 
Pisang (Philippines). See Musa paradisiaca. 
Pisonia brunoniana. Same as Pisonia exrcelsa. 
Pisonia excelsa. 
Family Nyctaginaceae. 
LocaL NAMES.—Umumu, Umumo (Guam); Tak-an (Philippines); Buatea 
(Tahiti). 
A shrub or tree, glabrous or nearly so; leaves opposite or growing in whorls at the 
ends of the branches, more or less coriaceous, oblong or oval, obtuse or pointed at 
the tip, slightly cordate, usually attenuate at the base (15 to 20 cm. or more long by 
4to6em. wide). Flowers dicecious, growing in terminal or lateral clusters (10 to 15 
em. long); clusters in pairs or in fours on the extremities of the branches, sometimes 
covered with reddish hairs, or on nodules on the lower parts of the branches; 
peduncles smooth or pubescent, like the rest of the inflorescence, often elongated 
and with short ramifications or shortened and with longer ramifications. Perianth 
funnel-shaped, 5 to 6 mm. long, 5-toothed, the fruiting clusters larger than the 
flowering ones; fruiting perianth, + to 6 em. long by 3 to 4 mm. wide, oblong, with 
5 ribs either smooth or armed with tiny spines, attenuate at the base, claviform at 
the top, exuding a viscous juice; stamens 6 to 10, of unequal length, protruding; 
female flowers having a I-celled ovary more or less elongated, with a single erect 
ovule; style often exserted with a 2-lobed stigma; stigma-lobes pectinate; style of 
male flowers when present often shorter than the stamens, its stigma lateral, oval, 
entire, spongy; fruitangular, inclosed in the persistent tube of the perianth, the angles 
frequently armed with prickly glands, which are sometimes searcely perceptible. 
This species is quite variable and has been described under several names. — It is 
widely distributed throughout the Pacific and in tropical Asia. 
“REFERENCES: 
Pisonia excelsa Blame, Bijdr. 735, 1826. 
Pisonia umbellifera Seem.; Nadeaud, Enum. Pl. Tahiti, 46. 1873. 
Pisonia mitis. Same as Pisonia eccelsa. 
Pisonia umbellifera. Same as Pisonia excelsa. 
Pisum sativum. 
Peas (Spanish ‘ 
REFERENCES: 
Pisum sativum L. Sp. Pl. 2: 727. 1758. 
Pithecolobium dulce. GUAMACHIL. 
Family Mimosaceae. 
LocaL NAmeEs.—Kamachiles, Camachile (Guam, Philippines); Guamachil, 
Huamachil, Guamachi (Mexico); Manila Tamarind (India). 
Amedium-sized tree introduced into Guam from Mexico, via the Philippines, bearing 
heads of small yellowish-green flowers followed by pods containing seeds embedded 
in a sweet, white, edible pulp oraril. Branches glabrous, pendulous; leaves abruptly 
bipinnate, composed of a single pair of pinnee, each of which has a single pair of 
alverjas’’) will not grow in Guam, 
