The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY 



Official Organ of 

 The Wild Flower Preservation Society 



OF America 



Vol. VII FEBRUARY, 1904 No. 2 



Extracts from the Note-Book of a Nat- 

 uralist on the Island of Guam.— XV.* 



By William E. Safford. 



Wednesday, November 15. — Benigno, my new boy, is busily engaged 

 in clearing a site for a house on my ranch above San Ramon. The tough 

 Triphasia bushes are hard to cut, and several times he has stepped upon 

 the sharp spines of the wild yams, which are very abundant there. To- 

 day I came across an interesting plant of a bright orange-scarlet color, a 

 leafless saprophyte, destitute of chlorophyl, growing on the roots of other 

 plants. The whole plant is waxy and translucent. The flowers are 

 unisexual, and closely crowded together. The male flowers have a reg- 

 ular perianth, but the female flowers have none. The latter consist of 

 a one-celled ovary having a single ovule and a long style. It is evidently 

 a Balanophora ; but I think it differs from the Tahitian and Fijian 

 species, which is of a pale yellow color. Every night when Benigno 

 goes home he takes a bundle of lemoncito wood, neatly trimmed, for 

 fuel. Both the lemoncito and the guava are abundant and their wood is 

 fine for cooking. Susana does not let the boys come home without wood. 

 I don't know what she expects to do with it all — the bodega beneath the 

 kitchen already has a supply sufiicient for several months. She manages 

 to keep everybody about the house busy. Often when I come home I 

 find her pulling weeds or raking the gravel walk, or perhaps planting 



* Continued from the January issue. Begun in September, 190?. 



