The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY 



Official Organ of 

 The Wild Flower Preservation Society 



OF America 



Vol. VII OCTOBER, 1904 No. 10 



Extracts from the Note-Book of a Nat- 

 uralist on the Island of Guam — XXIII.* 



By Wii.i,iam E. Safford. 



Thursday, February 22. — The Albatross has arrived with Alexander 

 Agassiz and his party on board. They have been cruising among the 

 coral islands of the Pacific for the purpose of studying the formation of 

 coral reefs and atolls, and the geology of the Pacific Islands generally. 

 For several months I have been saving newspapers and magazines for the 

 officers attached to her. The expedition left San Francisco the latter 

 part of last August, visiting the Marquesas, the Paumutus, Tahiti, Tonga- 

 tabu, the Cook group. Nine Island, Vavau, Fiji, the Ellice and Gilbert 

 groups, Jaluit (Marshall group), and the Eastern Carolines, including 

 Kusaie, Ponapi, and Truk. From the Carolines they came to Guam. 

 Throughout the entire cruise they have taken soundings together with the 

 temperatures of the bottom and surface of the ocean and specimens of the 

 bottom. They did not visit Samoa. 



Mr. Agassiz visited Agana to-day. I spent the entire morning with 

 him, giving him what information I could regarding this island ; telling 

 him of its flora and fauna, of the ancient and modern inhabitants, the 

 language, customs, and arts of the natives, and the antiquities to be 

 found. Mr. Agassiz asked me a number of questions about the physical 

 geography of the island. I described as well as I could the features of 

 the various parts I had visited, the mesa, or elevated coral platform of 



* Continued from the September issue. Begun in September, 1902. 



