58 THE PLANT WORLD 



woody and are indented on both sutures between the seeds. Each joint 

 contains a large, circular, compressed, smooth, shining, brown bean, 

 about two inches in diameter. They are often called " sea-beans," and 

 are used sometimes for making snuff-boxes. The natives of Guam call 

 the plant "Gaye," or by its Philippine name "Gogo," and the seeds 

 " Bayog." The joints composing the pod break apart from each other 

 and from the thickened sutures, which remain as a rigid empty frame. 

 The stem often grows to the thickness of a man's arm and to the length 

 of a hundred feet. When green it is tough, but on drying loses its 

 strength. It is very saponaceous and in Guam as well as in the Philip- 

 pines it is crushed and used for washing. In the West Indian plants the 

 flowers of this species are white, but those I saw to-day were of a deep 

 pink or strawberry color, as I have described them. The leaves are 

 bipinnate, with few pinnae, and the rachis terminates in a tendril ; leaflets 

 few, small, glabrous; flower spikes single or in pairs growing from axils 

 of old leaves. 



At a place called Liguan, where the road was full of sharp coral-rock, 

 we caught up with a boy leading a young buffalo. Slung across its back 

 were several large bamboos filled with water.* It is interesting to note 

 the absence of pottery among the aborigines of this island. In Mexico 

 water-jars and gourds are used for carrying liquids ; in Samoa hollowed 

 coconuts play the part of water-bottles ; but on this island the East 

 Indian custom of making water- vessels out of large bamboos prevails. 

 These are cut into convenient lengths, usually consisting of three or four 

 joints, and the septa at the nodes are all removed but the lowermost. On 

 the limbs of the trees overhanging the road there were numerous parasitic 

 ferns, and at many places there were thickets of the screwpine called 

 " Kafo " by the natives (^Pandayius fragrans) . On my hill-top property 

 the trees of this species have short trunks which fork dichotomously ; but 

 here in the forest the trunks of some rose straight and slender to the 

 height of fifteen feet before branching. The Kafo is easily distinguished 

 from the Aggak, or textile pandanus of the island iP. fasciailaris) by the 

 color and texture of the leaves. Those of the Aggak are glaucous and of 

 great tensile strength, while the Kafo leaves are bright green and are 

 easily broken. A third species, the " Pahong," or knob-fruited screw- 

 pine (^Panda?i7is dubius), has much broader and coarser leaves, too stiff 

 and brittle for textile purposes ; though on some islands after being made 

 flexible by heat they are woven into coarse mats of inferior quality. The 

 drupes composing the large compound fruit terminate each in a point 

 and present the appearance of a giant Fijian war-club head studded with 

 blunt projections. Their kernels as well as those of the Kafo are edible, 

 but they are not commonly eaten by the natives. The fleshy part of the 



*See Plate (frontispiece). 



