82 THE PLANT WORLD 



usually spread their mats on the floor at night and sleep there. This is 

 not unhealthful, since the entire house is raised from the ground. 



Our dinner consisted of a savory stew of tender young chickens, some 

 venison from the neighboring forest, soft-boiled eggs, taro and yams, 

 together with some of my Susana's good bread which we had brought 

 with us. Don Gregorio is Susana's brother. As Gobernadorcillo of 

 Agaria he is very efficient. To-day he was obliged to investigate the 

 cause of the death of a native whose body was found lying beneath a tree 

 near one of the southern towns of the island ; and consequently he could 

 not come with us as he had intended. For dessert we had some bananas 

 of the variety known here as ' ' Platanos de Manila ' ' and some excellent 

 oranges. The latter are so plentiful that tons of them are now lying on 

 the ground rotting. Even the pigs are tired of them and will no longer 

 eat them. If sugar were cheaper I think it would pay to manufacture 

 orange marmalade on a large scale for exportation to the United States. 

 Dona Rosa gave me a carambola to eat — a pellucid, green, oblong fruit 

 with five angular longitudinal ridges, giving to a cross-section the shape 

 of a five-pointed star. Within, it is of the color and consistency of a green 

 cucumber, and it has a pleasant sweet-acid taste, somewhat like that of 

 goose-berries. Very good tarts are made of the fruits and in Guam the 

 natives sometimes make dulces by boiling them with sugar. 



After dinner we walked to the top of Santa Rosa Mountain, a volcanic 

 hill not much more than one thousand feet high. Its crater may still be 

 traced, though its edge has been much broken down in places. The 

 immediate vicinity of Santa Rosa is devoid of trees. The soil consists 

 largely of clay and in places resembles red ochre. It is very fine, and 

 when wet of a pasty consistency. Unlike the coral platform of the 

 " mesa," it retains water and can not even be drained. On our way up 

 the slope of the mountain, noticed several buffalo wallows in which the 

 red, muddy water stood as in a tank. The vegetation consisted chiefly 

 of sword-grass, or " neti " {Misca?it/ins floridulus) , the cutting edges of 

 which are found under a lens to be armed with minute sharp teeth. 

 There are many areas like this, situated principally on knolls or high 

 lands. They are usually entirely devoid of trees or have only a sprinkling 

 of iron-wood {.Casuarhia equisetifolia) growing upon them. Here they are 

 called "sabanas." Noticed some patches of a coarse labiate, called by 

 the natives " Batunes " {Afesosphaerion capitattan) , with straight rough 

 stems and globular axillary heads of small flowers with hispid calyces. 

 Found several ferns, including the widely-spread Gleichenia dichotoma, 

 also patches of Lycopodiiun cernuum, which I had before collected in the 

 Hawaiian Islands (the ' ' Wawae-iole, " or ' 'Rats-foot, ' ' of the Hawaiians) . 

 These plants grow on the slopes and top of Santa Rosa. Two of the 

 most interesting plants on Santa Rosa were shrubs which I had often 



