4(H) USFFUL PLANTS OF (JUAM. 



ITS aliaiiiloiUMl clcaiiiij^'s on many islands; but it is mucli taller and its 1 -flowered 

 spikelets arc awned and are borne in a spreading panicle, while those of Iniperata 

 are not awncd and are in a silvery cylindrical thyrsus w ith dark anthers and stigmas. 



Thesi>ecies is widely spread throii<fhout the islands o^ the Pacific. It has been 

 confused by Hackel with the closely allied northern species Xiplwai/rostix jnpfirrim. 



Its identity was first I'stablished by Warburg. « Distribution: from Java through 

 Malaysia to Polynesia and Formosa. 



In Guam this gra.«s is sometimes used for thatching, and is more durable than 

 either coconut or nipa thatch. A roof of coconut thatch will last four years; one of 

 ni])a-palm leaflets will last from ten to twelve years; and one of neti will last longer than 

 this.'' In other islands of the Pacific it is also used for thatch, especially in Fiji, Samoa, 

 and Harotonga; and some of the Malanesians lianlen the straight light stems and use 

 them as shafts for their arrows. On the island of Guam large areas of " neti " are fre- 

 quently burned by hunters to drive out the deer which take refuge in them. The 

 young shoots whiich spring up are eaten by deer, cattle, and buffaloes, but when it is 

 fully grown it is too rough for fodder. The minute teeth which arm the margins of 

 the leaves make them very sharji; and one is almost certain to be cut on the face or 

 hands in passing through a thicket of this grass. It is on this account that the 

 English-speaking inhabitants of the island call it "sword-grass." 

 Rekekexcks: 



Xiphagrostis floridida ( La bill. ) Coville. 



Saccharum floridulmn Labill. Sert. Austr. Caled. 13. t. IS. 1824. 

 Mii^ranthus Jiorididus Warb. ; K. Sch. & Laut. Fl. Peutsch. Schutzgebiet. in der 

 Sudsee 166. 1901. 



The first species and type of the genus Miscanthus, established by Andersson in 1856, 

 is M. capensis, a species which is not congeneric with those referred to the genus Vjy 

 later authors. The plants commonly included under Miscanthus are therefore left 

 without a valid generic designation, and the name XijiJiagrostis {^i(po<;, sword, and 

 aypoodrii, grass) is here proposed, the type species being Jloridulds, the citation to 

 the original description of which is given above. Another well-known grass of the 

 same genus, in frequent cultivation under the name Eukdla japonica, becomes 

 Xiphagrostis japonica (Thunb. ) Coville {Sacchirum japonicum Thunb., Eulalia 

 japonica Trin., M i scant h>M sinensis Anders.). — Frederick V. Coville. 



Xylocarpus granatum. Cannon-ball tree. ^ 



Family Meliaceae. 



Local names. — Lahlnyog, Laldnyog (Guam); Kaliunpag-sa-lati, Libato-pula 

 (Philippines); Dal)i (Fiji). 



A glabrous, evergreen, littoral tree, with a large, liard, brown, irregularly globose 

 fruit witli a thin rind, containing 6 to 12 large, angular, hard, (;orky seeds. Leaves 

 alternate, pinnate, 2 to 6-foliate; leaflets stiff, opposite, entire, ovate or obovate, 

 usually obtuse, very shortly petiolulate; panicles lax, axillary; flowers small, sweet- 

 scented, yelUnvish or white, hermaphrodite, sometimes in simple racemes; calyx 

 4-fid, short; i)etals 4, reflexed, contorted sinistrosely; stamens united into an urceolate- 

 globose tube which is 8-toothed at apex, the teeth bipartite; anthers 8, 2-celled, just 

 included, sessile at top of tube, alternating with the teeth; style short; stigma dis- 

 coid; ovary 4-celled, 4-sulcate; cells 2 to 8-ovuled; pericarp fleshy, dehiscing by 4 

 valves opposite the obliterated dissepiments. 



A tree widely spread on tropical shores, common in India and Ceylon, the Malay 

 Archipelago, North Australia, and on many islands of the Pacific. The astringent 



« See Schumann und Lauterbach, Die Flora der deutschen Schutzgebiete in der 

 Sudsee, pp. 166, 167, 1901. 



'>MS. notes furnished me by Don Justo Dungca, late justice of the peace of the 

 island of (iuam, and one of the principal coconut planters of the island. 



c Trimen, Handbook Flora of Ceylon, vol. 1, p. 251, 1893. 



