THE PLANT WORLD 57 



with buttresses around the base of the trunk, small oblong-lanceolate 

 leaves growing thickly together, and fruit resembling large blue grapes, 

 but tasteless and hard and eaten only by birds and flying foxes ; another, 

 called "Katod," which is said to be poisonous, dust from the wood 

 causing sores on tiie body, and a third, called "Hodda," upon which 

 the black, starling-like Sali were feasting. It is evidently a species of 

 Ficus. Its fruit resemble small red crab-apples, but they are fibrous and 

 tasteless. Around the base of the trunk are branching aerial roots. 

 I have not been able to identify the giant banyan, which the natives call 

 Nunu." One of these trees which we saw at a place called Fanigayan 

 was throttling to death an Ahgao tree. Its aerial roots had twined about 

 the trunk of the Ahgao, and growing together wherever they came in 

 contact, were clasping it tighter and tighter. The "Nunu" does not 

 always begin life as an epiphyte. I have seen several specimens begin- 

 ning to germinate on the edge of a cliff, one on a stone wall, and one on 

 the ruins of a house of masonry. It is in no sense a parasite. The 

 wood is soft and useless. The bark is tough and has been used for tapa- 

 cloth. The juice is astringent and is used as a remedy for checking the 

 flow of blood. Another Ficus, called "Taguete," or "Tagete," has 

 aerial roots growing from the trunk but not from the limbs. Its wood 

 is sometimes used as fuel. 



The Ahgao {.Premna gaiidichaudii) is sometimes called " Wild Elder " 

 by the Spaniards, owing to the resemblance of its flowers to those of a 

 Sambucus. An allied species growing in the Philippines is called Argao 

 or Alagao by the natives and Sauco (Elder) by the Spaniards. The 

 wood of the Ahgao is hard and very durable, though inclined to be 

 crooked and knotty. It is much used in Guam for posts of houses — 

 logs twelve feet long and a foot and a half in diameter are sometimes 

 obtained. The leaves are about five inches, with petioles an inch and a 

 half long. They are broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, entire and smooth 

 when old. 



A second species of Premna growing on this island (P. mariannarum) 

 has much smaller leaves. They are oval or nearly round, short-petioled, 

 and are either obtuse or shortly acuminate, and somewhat cordate at the 

 base. As in the case of many other Verbenaceae, these trees yield 

 medicines. 



We passed patches of cultivation (principally maize and coconut plan- 

 tations) belonging to Manuel Manalise, Vicente Agustin, and Juan de 

 Ribera. At one place the road was covered with fallen spikes of small 

 flowers of a " crushed-strawberry " color. They proved to be the inflor- 

 escence of Entada scandens, a giant climbing leguminous plant belonging 

 to the family Mimosaceae. It seems surprising that a plant with flowers 

 so minute should have legumes as large as a sabre scabbard. These are 



