THE PI.ANT WORLD 205 



renne's French Dictionary translates the word ' ' convolvulus, ' ' but, as we 



have seen, its application is oftener to woody twiners of other families. 



It has even been recommended in this broad use as a desirable scientific 



term . One reason that it has not been generally adopted arises from the 



fact of its general application — especially to woolly plants of peculiar 



habit. Any one will recall, however, many herbaceous twiners and 



climbers. To these, as we understand it, the term is no longer applicable. 



Thus to the morning-glory and scarlet runner we should never apply the 



name " liane." 



Brown University. 



Extracts from the Note-Book of a Nat- 

 uralist on the Island of Guam.— X.* 



By William E. Safford. 



Mo7iday, October 16. — Walked to the hill above San Ramon, behind 

 Agaiia. Fine view of the town, the harbor, and the ocean ; made up my 

 mind to buy the hill-top and erect a little rancho or summer-house upon 

 it. Site stony and overgrown with a thicket of Triphasia bushes matted 

 together with thorny wild yam vines ; Abriis precatorms , which bears 

 scarlet black-eyed seeds ; and a leafless parasitic plant like dodder, called 

 " maiagas " by the natives. Collected specimens of a species of Cestrum 

 called "tintan China " (Chinese ink) with small white flowers and dark 

 purple berries ; Clerodendron inermis, a spreading shrub with pretty 

 honeysuckle-like flowers, called " lodugao " by the natives ; Ano7ia reti- 

 culata, " the bullocks-heart," or custard apple, called " anonas " by the 

 natives, with fruit not yet ripe ; Ximenia americaria, which bears a small 

 yellow plum-like fruit, tasting like a crab-apple flavored with bitter 

 almond ; a weed-like plant (^Desmodium gangeticuni) , called atis 

 aniti " (Devil's sweet-sop), from the resemblance of its leaves to those of 

 Anona squamosa; and Crescentia alata, the calabash tree of the Pacific 

 coast of Mexico. 



The calabash trees were of the same general shape as those of Cres- 

 centia cttjete of the West Indies, with dense long curved spreading leafy 

 branches like that species, but with the gourd-like fruit much smaller, 

 almost like an orange in shape and size, and with trifoliate leaves having 

 long winged petioles. The common name in Guam for the tree is 

 " hikara," a word of American origin, and in the Philippines it is some- 

 times called "hoja-cruz," from the resemblance of the shape of the leaf 



* Continued from August issue. Begun iu September, 1902. 



