THK PI.ANT WORI.D 287 



rounded by seines. Among the fish we caught there were very few 

 pelagic species. We got no bonitos nor flying-fishes. The custom of trawl- 

 ing for these is nearly obsolete. In the olden times one of the 

 favorite sports of the natives was to go out under sail in their won- 

 derful "flying praos " trawling for bonitos. Wives accompanied their 

 husbands and vied with them in managing the sails and in swimming 

 and diving. The custom of using the fruits of Barringtonia as a 

 fish intoxicant is widely spread throughout the islands of the Pacific. 

 It was forbidden by the Spanish government on account of the whole- 

 sale destruction of many fish too small for food. The fishing of to-day 

 was the first of the kind for several years.* 



Thursday, June 28. — It is a beautiful morning. The sky is deep 

 blue, the clouds soft and white, and the hills back of the town are of a rich 

 yellow-green in the morning sunlight. There is just enough breeze to 

 stir the feathery crests of the coconut palms. A pair of scarlet-and-black 

 honey-suckers are quarreling among the blossoms of my coconut tree. 

 Two wild ducks have just flown across the plaza in the direction of the 

 swamp east of the town. From time to time I hear the rattle of a king- 

 fisher. The nights are very pleasant, much cooler here in June than in 

 Washington or Boston. This morning my bath was positively cold. 

 When I opened my door I found a little hump-backed woman waiting 

 outside with a glass dish of flowers, a present from my friend Dona 

 Regina Sigiienza — a beautiful combination of pink crape myrtle and 

 fragrant olive-green henna {.Lawso?iia i7termis^, the true " camphire " 

 of Solomon, which is cultivated here in the gardens of the natives. On 

 a little lacquered stand brought to me from Japan by the trading schooner 

 stands a vase of Gynopogon, with the aromatic scent of its ally, the 

 beloved " maile " of the Hawaiians. Susana has set the table. I have 

 heavy silver spoons and forks made by the village silversmith out of Peru- 

 vian coin. In the center of the round narra-wood table is a single pink 

 amaryllis (Zephyranthes) growing in a pale green jar. I found a num- 

 ber of them growing in the plaza, and transplanted them when it was 

 levelled off for a parade-ground. They bloom once a month, coming up 

 from the ground and opening like a large crocus. My house is always 

 filled with flowers. Susana keeps me supplied with jasmines and ilang- 

 ilang blossoms, and occasionally I have a cluster of " mil-leguas " (thou- 

 sand leagues), which has a pungent fragrance like the alcoholic extract 

 of some delicious aromatic substance. The greenish-yellow flowers grow 

 in clusters. The plant is a species of Pergularia, well named mil- 

 leguas, for I know the instant I leave my ofl&ce when I have a fresh 

 bunch of it at home ; the odor is wafted clear across the plaza. 



* For a list of fishes collected by Mr. Scale, see Report of the Director of the Bishop Museum for 

 1900. See also the list of Guam fishes by the author in his forthcoming work on the Useful Plants of 

 Guam. Contr. Nat. Herb., Vol, IX, p. 88, 1905. 



