GUAM AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. l7 



MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS. 



There is a large number of widely different plants in Guam which 

 furnish feed for animals. Among these the breadfruit tree (Arto- 

 carpus communis) is probably the most important. The succulent 

 young growth bearing an abundance of leaves is cut and given to 

 cattle, which eat the leaves with great relish. The practice of feeding 

 the leaves of this tree is most commonly followed during the dry 

 season when other forage is scarce. The false stems of bananas and 

 plantains and the vmes of the sweet potato are also utilized for feed. 

 On lowland sod Desmodium trijiora and D. Jieterophyllum are fomid 

 associated with mixed grasses and often add much to the value of 

 the pasture. In similar locations, though less common, Alysicarpus 

 nuTYimularifolium is found. A twinmg plant of the morning-glory 

 family (Merremia hederacea) for which cattle, hogs, and chickens 

 show remarkable relish, makes luxuriant growth on newly cleared 

 areas, as well as on cultivated lands. A somewhat similar vine 

 {Ipomcea congesta) is also relished by stock. Cattle and carabao also 

 feed upon the succulent stems and leaves of Commelina nudiflora, 

 a weed that springs up m cultivated fields during the wet season. 

 This plant is called "siempre viva" by the natives, and when it once 

 becomes established on a tract of land it is very difficult to eradicate. 



ORCHARD NOTES. 

 THE MANGO. 



The propagation of the ordinary Guam mango ( Mangifera indica) 

 on the stock of the "Saipan" mango (M. odoratd), as outlined in our 

 last report, has been continued. The method practiced in this propa- 

 gation work was that of inarching by the system described by Oli- 

 ver,^ and this method has proved both simple and practical. The 

 system has special advantages over the usual cumbersome method 

 of constructing supports for heavy potted plants not only in Guam 

 but elsewhere within territory subject to severe windstorms. Seed- 

 ling plants prepared by the Oliver system and firmly bound to the 

 parent tree have been found to withstand the force of a severe typhoon 

 during the process of uniting without injury when plants supported 

 on a platform would have been destroyed. 



As has been mentioned in a previous report of this station, the time 

 intervening between the planting of a seedling of the local variety of 

 Mangifera indica and the fruiting of the tree varies from 12 to 20 

 years. In the work at the station inarched plants have flowered within 

 four months from the time of inarching (PI. IV, fig. 1). Trees of that 

 age are too young and lack suflicient development to support or ma- 



1 Oliver, G. W. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. Bui. 202. 



