164 THE PLANT WOKLD 



Landed at Punta Piti, where there is a wharf. United States flag 

 flying from the house of the Teniente, which is decorated with red, white, 

 and bkie tissue paper, in honor of the arrival of the governor. At Punta 

 Piti, several houses of masonry and a half dozen native huts of wood 

 thatched with cocoanut leaves. Huts raised three or four feet from the 

 ground on posts ; frame work of roof lashed together with leaves of 

 Pandanus ; pigs tethered beneath them by cords attached to fore-leg ; 

 natives smiling and pleasant looking, every little chap saluting as we 

 passed. Near the houses Terminalia and Silk-cotton trees ; coconut 

 trunks notched to facilitate climbing ; native men with shirts outside of 

 trousers. 



Not far from the landing place a mangrove swamp ; dense growth 

 of Rhizoi^hora mucronata and Bruguiera gymnorhiza, with glossy leaves 

 and aerial, prop-like roots arching down into the mud, the former with 

 four-parted flowers, the latter with corollas divided into many limbs ; 

 seeds germinating while fruit is still attached to tree, the radicle perforat- 

 ing the apex ; queer little fish, like tadpoles, with bulging eyes, hopping 

 about among the mangrove roots (Periophthalmus Koelreuteri), a species 

 of wide tropical distribution ; interesting from the fact that it is air- 

 breathing ; many crabs crawling over the black slimy mud. Among the 

 mangroves a tree with clusters of bright crimson blossoms (Lumnitzera 

 pedicellata Presl.), called " Nana " by the natives ; and, near by, a fine 

 tree with whitish green foliage (Heritiera lUtoralis), called " Ufa " by 

 the natives, who make solid wheels for the bullock and buffalo carts out 

 of its tough, cross-grained wood. 



Called upon Don Jose Wilson, the Teniente del Barrio, from whom 

 we hired a vehicle to carry us to Agaiia the capital, a town of about 6,000 

 inhabitants, about five miles distant. Don Jose explained that those 

 who had preceded us had taken the only available horses ; but that we 

 might have either a carabao or a cow. As the latter was declared to be 

 the swifter, we selected her and were soon on our way northward, the 

 cow trotting merrily along like a horse, her little calf following a short 

 distance behind.* For the greater part of the way the road lay along the 

 beach. A short distance from Piti we passed a fine rice field, the prop- 

 erty of Don Jose Martinez ; irrigation similar to that in the Philippines ; 

 yellow Malvaceae growing near the road {Abutilon Indicum and a species 

 of Sida) ; saw several curlew and plover, and across the rice field flew a 

 pair of wild ducks. Our driver told us of a black bird with red beak 

 called Pidatal, inhabiting the rice fields and marshes — probably a gal- 

 linule, or moor-hen. 



Boad bordered for a short distance by Acacia farnesiana, an intro- 



See figure showing vehicle with cow, left side of road, village of Asan. 



