THE PLANT WORI.D 3 



the hard shell. The peculiar four-angled fruits of Barringtonia spedosa 

 covered the beach so thickly in many places that it was impossible to walk 

 without stepping on them. Many of them were germinating and there 

 were also hundreds of young seedlings of iron wood and Terminalia. 

 Just above the high-water line I noticed several large logs and parts of 

 wrecks of vessels riddled with teredo borings and covered with barnacles. 

 Some of the largest logs looked like Oregon pine. They must have come 

 from the direction of America, as Guam is directly in the path of the 

 great Pacific current which flows to the westward, urged onward by the 

 almost constant trade- winds. 



We crossed a stream called the Sadog Togcha by fording, and shortly 

 afterwards we came to a little shed on the margin of the sea, in which a 

 woman was sitting by an iron kettle braiding miniature baskets of young 

 coconut leaflets, which she filled with the almond-like kernels of Ter- 

 minalia nuts ( Talisai) . Under the kettle a fire was burning and in it was 

 sea- water. The old lady was making salt. Here, I thought, is an ex- 

 ample of thrift. She will sell the salt at Agana and will probably send 

 the nuts to Manila, where they will be made into confections. A young 

 girl was collecting fuel for the fire. From time to time we heard a crow 

 caw. This bird (.Corvus kubaryi), the old lady said, is very fond of the 

 Terminalia nuts as well as of corn. After resting awhile we proceeded 

 on our way, the old lady and girl joining us and leaving their fire still 

 burning under the kettle. Then I realized that this was Dona Francisca, 

 the owner of the farm in the valley of Tarofofo, for which I was bound. 

 She asked why her son-in-law had not accompanied us, and was much 

 distressed when she heard of his accident ; but I reassured her, telling 

 her that our doctor had already drawn the stick from his foot, and that 

 he would receive the best of care at the hospital. As we proceeded on 

 our way we caught up with a man on cow-back who was playing bugle- 

 calls on the hollow petiole of a papaya leaf ^Carica papaya) . Some of the 

 calls were quite elaborate, and when I first heard him I thought that he 

 had gotten a new bugle in Agana and was trying his skill as a trumpeter. 



We were now opposite a break in the barrier reef called the Demon's 

 Passage (^Saguan Aniti), and soon afterwards we climbed up a promon- 

 tory called As Kiroga by means of steps cut in the solid rock. This is 

 named in honor of Don Jose Quiroga, who won great distinction in the 

 early history of these islands on account of the relentless war he waged 

 against the natives, alternately driving them from island to island in the 

 north and reconcentrating them on Guam. On this rocky promontory the 

 most conspicuous plant was Cycas circinalis, which grew in great profu- 

 sion. The general effect of the landscape was that of an ideal sketch of 

 vegetation during the Carboniferous age. No living plant is more inter- 

 esting to me than these strange palm-like trees, with their rich green, 



