The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY 



Official Organ of 

 The Wild Flower Preservation Society 



OF America 



Vol. VII JULY, 1904 No. 7 



Extracts from the Note-Book of a Nat- 

 uralist on the Island of Guam.— XX/ 



By William E. Safford. 



Friday. February 2. — Up early for a walk along the beach beyond 

 San Antonio. Returning, followed the bank of the river where it runs 

 parallel to the coast before emptying into the sea. Was struck with the 

 great number of food plants growing everywhere. Complaints are con- 

 tinually made that our people are suffering for lack of food, and the papers 

 have represented the natives of this island as in a starving condition. 

 The trouble is that when ships touch here few provisions are taken off to 

 them, the natives preferring to raise only enough for their own consump- 

 tion. The foreigners will not take the trouble to cultivate a taste for 

 the nutritious taro, yams, and plantains, which are plentiful, but say that 

 there is nothing edible to be found. On the banks of the river this morn- 

 ing I saw growing an abundance of useful plants : bananas, bread-fruit, 

 coconuts, and taro ; besides the pandanus called aggag, which has the 

 strong leaves used by the natives for cordage and for lashing the thatch 

 to the roofs of their houses. While standing on the stone bridge I saw 

 a number of eels (true fresh water anguilas), which the natives of this 

 island call hasule, and a species of Kuhl ia, which the natives call pulan\ 



* Continued from the June issue. Beg^n in September, 1902. 



\Kiihlia rupesiris (Lacep); see page 75 of Report of the Director of Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum 

 for 1900. Honolulu, 1901. 



