DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 359 
Pomelo. See Citrus decumana. 
Pondweed. (ieneral name for the species of Potamogeton. 
Pontan (Guam). 
Vernacular name for a coconut which has fallen to the ground. 
Portlandia tetrandra. Same as Cormigonus mariannensis. 
Portulaca oleracea. PURSLANE, 
Family Portulacaceae. 
LocaL NAMeS.—Verdolaga (Spanish); Osuberi-hiyu (Japan ). 
This common weed is spread all oyer the world. It is sometimes eaten as a pot 
herb and is used medicinally. It is said to be antiscorbutic. Flowers inconspicuous, 
several together in terminal heads; sepals 2, fleshy. In Japan there is a variety 
(sativa) cultivated by the natives, which attains the height of 30cm. In the spring 
and summer months the leaves and stalks are eaten either raw or scalded. 
REFERENCES: 
Portulaca oleracea 1. Sp. Pl. 1: 446. 1755. 
Portulaca quadrifida. Four-LEAVED PURSLANE. 
LocaL Names.—Hierba de pollo (Spanish); Fiafiatuli (Samoa). 
A small, delicate, prostrate, much-branched annual, creeping and rooting at the 
nodes, with numerous slender, glabrous stems; leaves numerous, opposite, 6 mm. 
long or smaller, very nearly sessile, oval, subobtuse, fleshy; stipular appendages : 
ring of long white hairs; flower solitary, terminal, sessile, surrounded with long white 
hairs and an involuere of 4 leaves; sepals oblong-oval, obtuse, thin; petals 4, lemon- 
yellow, oval, obtuse; stamens 8; style filiform, 4+cleft at apex; capsule acute; seeds 
twice the size of those of P. oleracea, rough, with small firm excrescences, 
A delicate creeping plant, often minute, in dry situations, growing in cultivated 
ground; flowers open in the middle of the day only. Common on the sabanas of 
Guam. Sometimes used as a pot herb, either for food or as an antiscorbutic. 
REFERENCES: 
Portulaca quadrifida L. Mant. 1: 78. 1767, 
Portulacaceae. PURSLANE FAMILY. 
The only representatives of this family in Guam are the two preceding species of 
Portulaca. 
Pot herbs. 
Among the plants used in Guam for golae (greens or pot herbs, Spanish ‘‘ verdura),”’ 
are severel species of Amaranthus called ** kelites,”’ ‘‘kuletes,’”? or ‘bledos;” Cheno- 
podium album, also called “ kelites”’ or “cenizo?’ Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) ; 
purslane or ‘‘yerdolaga ”” ( Portulaca oleracea), and ‘chara’? (Sesuvinue portulacas- 
trum). 
The value of pot herbs or ‘‘greens”’ as a preventive and cure for scurvy has long 
been recognized, and there can be no question that such food is necessary from time 
to time to keep the human body in good condition. The value of this element in 
diet has been discussed in a paper by Mr. Frederick V. Coville.@ 
In addition to the plants above mentioned the natives of nearly all the islands of 
the Pacifie eat the young leaves of the taro (Caladium colocasia), which must be 
thoroughly cooked to remove the acridity of their natural state. These leaves are 
either boiled like spinach or they are prepared with the expressed creamy juice of 
the coconut and baked in native ovens. In Samoa this dish is called ‘*palusami.’’ 
Among the trees which furnish edible pods, leaves, and flowers are the marunggal, 
or horseradish tree (Moringa moringa), and the leguminous katurai (Agati grandi- 
aCoville, Some Additions to our Vegetable Dietary, Yearbook, U. 8. Dept. Agr., 
1895, p. 206. 
bSee p. 69. 
