278 THE PLANT WORLD 



products, among which the coconut possibly takes first place. In Poly- 

 nesian folklore, appropriately enough, the breadfruit, as we have seen, 

 plays an important part, and its praise has been sung by poets of many 

 lands. Lord Byron, inspired by the tales of early voyagers, describes it 

 in the following beautiful lines : 



"The breadfruit tree, which, without the plowshare, yields 

 The unreaped harvest of unfurrowed fields, 

 And bakes its unadulterated loaves 

 Without a furnace in unpurchased groves, 

 And flings off" famine from its fertile breast, 

 A priceless market for the gathering guest." 



Extracts from the Note-Book of a Nat- 

 uralist on the Island of Guam.— XI 11. * 



By William E. Safford. 



Friday, November 10. — I have just returned from a trip to Tarofofo, 

 on the other side of the island. Started early yesterday morning, 

 accompanied by my new boy Benancio and b}^ Manuel Baza, who has a 

 finca near the mouth of the Ilig River. Baza has been accused of in- 

 fringing upon the property of a neighbor across the river ; and he asked 

 me to visit his finca so that I might understand the true state of the case. 

 Another young man, the son-in-law of Doiia Francisca Aguon, was to 

 have been one of our partj' ; but he ran a stick into his foot while on his 

 way to Agana, and is now in our hospital. Doiia Francisca is the widow 

 of Juan Cepeda, who settled in the Tarofofo Valley and established there 

 a fine plantation. Her son-in-law has been accused of the same thing as 

 Baza — clearing and cultivating a spot of land within the limits of another 

 man's claim. In addition to visiting these two fincas I was to make an 

 examination of Tarofofo Bay to see if it is a suitable place for landing 

 the trans-Pacific cable. This I did at the request of Captain Hodges, 

 commanding the U. S. S. Nero. 



It was not yet daylight when we set out. As we climbed the hill be- 

 hind San Ramon, — my hill now, — I brushed against a Bauhinia bush, 

 and noticed that the two lobes of the leaves were folded together. This 

 caused me to examine some vines of Abrus precatoriiis , which I noticed 

 several days ago climbing among the bushes at this place, and found their 

 tiny leaflets all folded downward back to back. A little farther on I 

 knew there was a " Bilimbines " tree {.Averrhoa carambold). When we 



♦Continued from the November issue. Begun in September, 1902. 



