The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY 



Official Organ of 

 The Wild Flower Preservation Society 



of America 



Vol. VI APRIL, 1903 No. 4 



Extracts from the Note-Book of a Nat- 

 uralist on the Island of Guam.— V.* 



By William E. Safford. 



A LITTLE old lady, with a brown, wrinkled face and gray hair, but 

 with a merry twinkle in her eye, stood on the threshold, hesitating to 

 accept my invitation to enter. She introduced herself as Dolores and 

 said that she had come to ask a favor. I invited her to sit down, but she 

 made a quaint curtsey and remained standing. She spoke unusually good 

 Spanish for a native and addressed me as Vuesamerced (a contraction for 



your honor ")• Dofia Rufina, the former owner of my house, she said, 

 had permitted her to use the oven in the garden for baking bread and 

 toasting bread-fruit ; would the senor have the grace to allow her still to 

 use it. She had no flour for bread, but God in His mercy had given 

 bread-fruit to the poor Chamorros of Guam, and it was now time to lay 

 by a store for future use, when the bread-fruit season should be past. 

 Had the senor ever tasted biscocho made of sliced bread-fruit? It was 

 very good either dry or cooked in various ways, and it would last a long 

 time if kept dry. She had heard that the senor was a kind gentleman, 

 and she hoped he would excuse her for making the request. I told her 

 that my oven was at the disposal of any of my neighbors who might wish 

 to use it, and it did not annoy me at all to have them come into my yard 

 either for baking or for water from my well. 



* Coutiuued from March issue. Begun in September, 1903. 



