206 THE PLANT WORLD 



to a cross. Picked up a number of old fruits lying on the ground ; their 

 shell hard and brittle, containing a number of seed. In the allied West 

 Indian species the shell is thicker and more woody, and the calabashes, 

 which are often colored and engraved, serve as basins, cups, water-bottles, 

 and even kettles in which water may be boiled several times before the 

 calabash is destroyed. The fruits I picked up to-day could not possibly 

 be used for anything else than cups for coffee or tea. When fresh they 

 contain a bitter pulp which in Mexico is boiled with sugar and is used 

 internally for diseases of the lungs. In the Philippines a decoction of the 

 leaves is used as a remedy for blood-spitting.* The tree is interesting 

 from the fact that it is caulifloral ; that is, its flowers are produced by 

 adventitious buds in the thin greenish bark of the trunk and larger 

 branches, as in the allied candle-tree of Panama (^Partneritiera cerifera),^ 

 cacao ( Theobronia cacao) from the seeds of which chocolate is made, and 

 Averrhoa caranibola, erroneously called " bilimbines " on this island. 

 The flowers of the Crescentia are very much like those of Parmentiera 

 and other trumpet-shaped Bignoniaceae. They are thick and fleshy, 

 and in this species of a mottled brownish or purplish color, and have a 

 disagreeable odor. 



The wild yam of Guam i^Dioscorea spinosa) , called " gado," or " nika 

 cimarron," is very abundant in the thickets of this island. It is often 

 confused with Dioscorea aculeata, the cultivated prickly yam, here called 

 " nika," which it resembles in the form of its broad heart-shaped leaves, 

 with deep basal sinus, and its prickly stem. It is very distinct however 

 in having its fleshy tuberous root-stock protected by a growth of hard, 

 wiry, sharp, branching thorns around the base of the stem, which would 

 undoubtedly save it from wild hogs and other root-eating animals. These 

 branching spines, which have very much the appearance of compound fish- 

 hooks, are in reality lateral roots which differ from typical monocotyle- 

 donous roots in their hard woody structure and the absence of root-caps. J 

 The '*nika" was cultivated on this island before the discovery. The 

 " nika cimarron " is probably an introduction from the Caroline Islands. 



The dodder-like ' ' maiagas ' ' proved to be the widely spread Cassytha 



/iliformis, a wiry, leafless, twining, parasitic plant very common in many 



tropical countries, belonging to the Lauraceae. The leaves are replaced 



by small scales from the axils of which grow spikes of small six-parted 



* Padre Blanco. " Flora de Filipinas." Manila, 1837 : 491. 



t See Schimper. " Pflanzen-Geographie auf pliysiologischer Grundlag^e." Jena, 1898: 360. An 

 excellent figure of the candle-tree is given to illustrate what the author calls " cauliflorie." 



X See Hill, T. G., and Mrs. W. G. Freeman. "Annals of Botany," 17 : 413, on the root-structure of 

 the allied African species, Dioscorea prekensilis , •which is armed with similar spines. " The lateral 

 roots form the actual spines. They only exhibit normal root-structures at the extreme apex ; else- 

 where the phloem strands travel irregularly throughout the whole area of the stele, while the xylem 

 is more or less restricted to the central region. The hardness both of the main roots and the spines is 

 due to the thickening and lignification of the conjunctive tissue of the stele." 



