iai9] WILSOX, THE BOXIX ISLANDS 111 



gray-green, fan-shaped leaves, pendent at the edges. It is unhke other 

 trees on the Islands, and being common is a decided feature. Behind the 

 town of Omura there is a preserved forest and here this Palm is abundant. 

 Also it is plentiful on Muko-jima and Anl-jinia and is also used as a windbreak 

 as already mentioned. On young plants the petioles are armed with strong, 

 curved prickles, but this armature disapjicars as the adult condition is 

 reached. Although its leaves get sadly tattered the tree is seldom blown 

 down by the windstorms, fierce though they are. Five (Heniandia peltata 

 ^leisn. , Eryfhrina indica L., Hibiscus tiliaceous L., Calophyllum Inophyllum 

 L., Terminalia catappa L.) of the Dicotyledonous trees are strand trees wide- 

 spread in the tropics. The Terminalia with its tiers of branches spreading 

 at right angles to the trunk and the Hibiscus are not common, but a smooth- 

 leaved form of the latter (var. glabra Matsum.) is abundant on the moun- 

 tains where in the forests it is often 3 meters in girth of trunk and 15 meters 

 tall. The wood of both is used to make the struts to which the outrigger 

 is attached on canoes. The Erythrina and Hernandia are ugly trees when 

 bare of leaves and have many warty excrescences on the trunks. The fruit 

 of the Hernandia is remarkably adapted for distribution by ocean currents 

 as previously told, and the wood is soft and is used in the hulls of canoes. 

 The Calophyllum is the handsomest of these strand trees and decidedly 

 useful both as a windbreak and for its wood, which is beautifully figured. 

 Formerly whahng ships traded in it considerably, and under the name of 

 " Tremona " it was much used and valued by the Bonin Islanders. Around 

 the more sheltered coves at sea-level it grows 25 m. tall and has a trunk 

 3 m. in girth and a shapely umljrageous crown and dark green leaves. Its 

 globular, plum-like fruit contains a very hard seed which will germinate 

 after long immersion in sea-water. 



The Celtis ranks among the finest of the genus. In the bit of virgin forest 

 on Kuwanoki-yama (Mulberry Mt.), Haha-jima, and similar other places it 

 is often 25 m. tall with a trunk 5 m. in girth above the large buttressed 

 roots. The bark is smooth, pale gray, and the fruit orange-colored, the size 

 of a large pea and edible; the green shoots and leaves are used as cattle feed. 



TheTrema and the three Figs are small trees endemic and unimportant, but 

 the Mulberry or '*Kuwa" of the Japanese is the most valuable timber tree 

 on the Islands. The largest living tree I saw grows with the Celtis and was 

 about 23 meters tall and 3 meters in girth of trunk, but a fallen, dead tree 

 I measured was 9 meters in girth of trunk. The wood is yellowish when 

 first cut and changes to nearly black with age. It is finely figured, heavier 

 than water, and is especially valuable for cabinet work though difficult to 

 handle. This Mulberry is an upstanding tree with a straight trunk, clean 

 of branches for 6 or 7 meters, has dark brown, scaly, fissured bark which 

 flakes off, and large, dark green cordate leaves. The flowers appear in 

 October and the fruit is ripe in December. The value of its wood has 

 almost brought about the tree's extinction, in fact it has done so on Chichi- 

 jima, but the Japanese Government is now planting it, and felling it is 

 prohibited. 



