388 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
The cacao plantations of Guam suffer greatly from the ravages of the brown, or 
Norway, rat (Mus decumanus), which overruns the island and is a great pest. These 
animals are immoderately fond of the beans, and sometimes destroy whole crops. 
The trees are comparatively short-lived, often beginning to die at the top when 10 
years old, and are subject to the attack of boring insects. On this account and on 
account of the sensitiveness of the trees to hurricanes, which are not rare in Guam, 
‘acao is not cultivated extensively, the natives preferring to devote their energies to 
clearing land for the longer-lived and hardier coconuts, which yield good and certain 
returns. In places where conditions of soil and moisture are favorable for cacao 
culture, it is recommended that belts of forest be left as a protection from wind. 
Where the forest has been destroyed, artificial wind-breaks may be formed by plant- 
ing trees and wild yams, which quickly form a solid matting of vegetation. If 
leguminous trees are planted they will undoubtedly be a benefit to the soil as storers 
of nitrogen. 
REFERENCES: 
Theobroma cacao L. Sp. Pl. 2: 782. 1753. 
Thespesia populnea. MILo. 
Family Malvaceae. 
Loca, NAMEs.—Kflulu, Quilulu (Guam); Bulakan, Bubui gubat (Philippines); 
Mulo (Fiji); Milo (Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii); Miro (Rarotonga); 
Bonabeng (Yap); Pona, Pena, Pana (Ponape); Bengibeng (Gilbert Islands); 
Kaikaia (Bougainville Straits); Suriya-gas (Ceylon); Umbrella tree, Tulip 
tree (British India); Majagua de Florida (Cuba); Palo de jagueca (Porto 
Rico). 
A tree growing near the coast, with showy yellow flowers which change to a 
purplish-pink color on withering. Branches spreading; young twigs covered with 
peltate scales; leaves 7 to 12 em. long, broadly ovate, entire, acute, or acuminate, 
cordate at base, palmately 7-veined, more or less covered on both sides with minute 
peltate scales, sometimes with a glandular pore beneath between the bases of the 
veins; petioles 2.5 to 7.5 em. long, stipules subulate, deciduous; flowers axillary, soli- 
tary, campanulate, 5 to 7.5 cm. in diameter; peduncles 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long, bracteoles 
lacking or very early deciduous; calyx cup-shaped, truncate, the teeth obscurely 
marked; petals 5; stamens indefinite, filaments forming a tube; capsule about 2.5 
em. long, depressed globose, somewhat lobed, 4 or 5-celled, surrounded at the base by 
the persistent calyx, more or less covered with peltate scales, indehiscent or irregu- 
larly dehiscent; seeds woolly, large, compressed. As in many species of Hibiscus, 
the 5 styles are connate, or grow together; ovary 4 or 5-celled, with many ovules in 
each cell; stigma club-shaped. 
A favorite shade tree, growing wild and often planted about villages in Polynesia. 
The heartwood is hard, smooth, durable, and of a dark-red color. The Hawaiians 
sometimes make poi calabashes of it, and it has been called ‘Polynesian rosewood.” 
The bark is tough and fibrous, but for cordage is inferior to that of Pariti tiliaceum. 
It is one of the commonest trees of Guam. This tree is of very wide distribution. 
It ranges from tropical Asia, Africa, and Madagascar across the Pacific to Hawaii 
and Easter Island, and also occurs in tropical America and the West Indies. The 
identity of its name in islands so widely separated as Rarotonga and Hawaii is 
interesting. 
REFERENCES: 
Thespesia populnea (L.) Soland.; Correa, Ann. Mus. Par. 9: 290. ¢. &. f. 2. 1807. 
Hibiscus populneus L. Sp. Pl. 2: 694. 1753. 
Malvaviscus populneus Geertn. Fruet. 2: 253. t. 185. f. 3. 1791. 
Thorea gaudichaudii. See Algz. 
Thornapple. See Datura fastuosa. 
