THE PLANT WORLD 59 



drupes, which in some coral islands is a food staple of the natives, is never 

 eaten in Guam. The textile "Aggak " grows here only in a state of 

 cultivation, as it is represented on the island by only one sex and can 

 not therefore propagate itself. In the same way the seedless breadfruit 

 grows only where planted, while the fertile form of the species, called 

 "Dugdug, " is one of the most common forest trees, often growing to 

 great size. Specimens we saw to-day had buttressed trunks. 



We had now reached a terrace called the ' ' Egso Liguan, ' ' and changed 

 our course from northeast to east. At one place the road crossed a ledge 

 of crystalline limestone (marble?) into which the cart-wheels had worn 

 ruts. In about an hour we climbed another terrace, the " Egso as Ad- 

 das," beyond which we saw a plantation belonging to Juan Martinez, 

 Chief of Barangay. We now left the road, so as to make a short cut 

 northward to Mataguak, where Father Palomo's plantation is situated. 

 On entering the narrow crooked path through the woods my hat was 

 pulled off my head and my face cruelly scratched by the recurved thorns 

 of a Pakao bush {,Guila7idina bonducella) . I stopped to pick a few of its 

 prickly pods, which contain the stony seed sometimes called sea-beans 

 or nicker-nuts. The Spanish name ' ' Unas de Gato ' ' (Cats-claws) seemed 

 to me especially appropriate for this bush. The boys now brought me a 

 number of small red berries called Otot, about the size of currants, each 

 containing a single large seed with its testa longitudinally grooved. It 

 is probably a species of Ardisia. They have a pleasant acid taste, some- 

 what like that of tamarinds, but they are eaten only by birds. Another 

 plant we found here ("Seyaihagon "), with broad cordate leaves having 

 a deep basal sinus, and suggesting our stemless Asarum in its manner of 

 growth, proved to be an orchid (^Nervilea arragoana) allied to our Po- 

 gonias. Its succulent tubers are often chewed by the natives to allay 

 thirst. I also found the pretty little creeping Rubiaceous plant Geophila 

 reniformis, having white flowers and small red fruit like our partridge- 

 berries. This is one of the few low plants growing in the woods of Samoa. 

 Mrs. Stevenson collected it near Vailima, and thought she had found in 

 its fruit a substitute for cranberries. 



After passing through the plantations of Joae Ariola and Mariano de 

 Castro, where we saw some fine coffee plants and coconuts, we crossed a 

 ridge and descended into a sheltered valley where the ground was moist 

 and the soil looked rich. Here we saw some pretty fair cacao plants, 

 but they were all planted too close (2 meters apart). On many of them 

 the fruit had been damaged by rats. These are great pests on the island. 

 During our trip to-day we saw hundreds of them in the woods. They 

 were not timid, but would often sit up on their haunches like squirrels 

 and watch us as we passed. They also do harm to maize and in a less 

 degree to unripe coconuts. We were now very close to the Sabana of 



