The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION SOCIETY 



OF AMERICA. 



Vol. V. SEPTEMBER, 1903. No. 9. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST 

 ON THE ISLAND OF GUAM —I. 



By Wiluam E. Safford.* 

 illustrated. 



SUNDAY, Augiist 13, 1899.— Sighted the island of Guam at day- 

 light, apparently a flat table-land in its northern part, and rough 

 and mountainous in the southern. Steamed in to our anchorage 

 in the harbor of San Luis de Apra, where we found the Yosemite and 

 Nanshan at anchor, the former with the governor, two companies of 

 marines, and a surveying outfit on board. Passed very close to the 

 promontory of Orote on our right, observing great numbers of cycads 

 growing among the rocks, like low tree-ferns with glossy plume-like 

 fronds ; further in the village of Sumay, on a low stretch of sandy 

 beach fringed with coconut palms. On our left the low rocky island of 

 Apapa, also called Isla de Cobras, or "Goat Island." In prolongation 

 of this a long coral reef, which is uncovered at low tide. Near the head 

 of the bay, a rocky islet crowned by a fort upon which the Yosemite 

 people have established their observatory. This is in latitude 13° 25' 

 45" north, and longitude 144° 39' 28" east of Greenwich ; so that Guam 

 is about as far north of the equator as Samoa is south of it. 



The harbor is large, but is taken up with submerged coral reefs 



*During the administration of Governor Leary, directly after the close of the Span- 

 ish war, Lieut. William E. Safford, U. S. N. (since resigned from the Navy to enter 

 the di\nsion of Tropical Botany, U. S. Department of Agriculture) was Lieutenant 

 Governor.— Rd. Plant World. 



