200 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



2 or 3-lobed, divisions rounded; petals 5, united at the base together with the sta- 

 mens into a tube; ovary nearly sessile; style very short; stigma oblique; pod short- 

 stemmed, obovate, curved, hard, drupe-like, one-seeded. 



In Polynesia the seed is eaten cooked when not quite ripe, and tastes much like 



a chestnut. In some islands it is preserved, like the breadfruit, in pits, where it is 



left to ferment. In Samoa it is a staple food for several months of the year. The 



bark of the tree is astringent. The wood is perishable and is of little economic value. 



REFERENCES: 



Bocoa edulis (Forst.) Baill. Adansonia 9: 237. 1868-70. 

 Inocarpus edulis Forst. Char. Gen. 66. t. 33. 1776. 

 Boehmeria candolleaua Gaudich. Same as Pipturus argenteus. 

 Boehmeria paniculata. Same as /Schychowskya ruderalis. 



Boehmeria tenacissima. RHEA. 



Family Urticaceae. 

 LOCAL NAMES. Amahayan, Amahadyan (Guam); Labnis, Arimay, Amiray 



(Philippines); Oramai (Ponape); Lafai (Solomon Islands). 



A shrub or small tree with alternate, broadly ovate, acuminate, 3-nerved leaves, 

 green above, white beneath, with dentate margins. Flowers minute, green, monoe- 

 cious, in axillary panicles, with numerous sessile flower-heads along the entire length 

 of the branches of the inflorescence; male flowers in the axils of the lower leaves; 

 perianth 4-partite; stamens 4, opposite the perianth lobes; female flowers in the axils 

 of the upper leaves; perianth gamophyllous, tubular, hairy, 4-dentate at the contracted 

 mouth; style much exserted, hairy; ovary inclosed completely by the perianth; 

 stigma papillose, on one side of the style; achene inclosed in the perianth, the peri- 

 carp crustaceous. 



This plant is indigenous to the island. It differs from the allied Boehmeria nivea 

 in its more robust habit of growth, in its larger leaves, the lower surface of which is 

 white, but not covered with the thick felt-like coating of that species, and in being 

 shrubby instead of ^herbaceous. It was collected in Guam by Gaudichaud, who 

 described it as having "feuilles tomenteuses et argentees au-dessous, " and growing 

 near the seashore; a but he confused its vernacular name, "amahayan" with that of 

 an allied plant called " sayiafi," having ovate, cordate, acuminate leaves, the petioles 

 and lower surface of veins being covered with reddish pubescence, while the veins 

 of the amahayan are smooth. 



This species is figured by Wight. & The form growing in Guam has leaves more 

 finely serrate on the margin than in his figure. 



Boehmeria nivea is essentially a plant of temperate climates, and yields the "ramie" 

 fiber from which "China grass cloth" is made. The name "rhea" should be con- 

 fined to the fiber obtained from the tropical species. In Guam the plant is not 

 utilized by the natives for textile purposes, but they use the bark as a remedy in 

 certain diseases. An interesting account of the methods of cultivation and of 

 extracting the fiber of Boehmeria nivea is given by Charles Richards Dodge in his 

 catalogue of the Useful Fibre Plants of the World, c 



To be suitable for fiber purposes the stems should be unbranched. The trees 

 or shrubs growing alone branch freely. In cultivation they should be planted close 

 together, so as to throw up straight shoots, as in the case of hemp. 

 REFERENCES: 



Boehmeria tenacissima Gaudich. Bot. Freyc. Voy. 500. 1826. 

 Urtica tenacissima Roxb. Hort. Beng. 67. 1814 (ex Ind. Kew.); Fl. Ind. 3: 



590. 1832. 

 Boehmeria nivea tenacissima (Roxb.) Miq. Fl. Ind. Bot. I 2 : 253. 1859. 



Narrative of Freycinet's Expedition, 1825. 



& Icones, vol. 2, pi. 688, 1842. 



c Report No. 9, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1897. 



