258 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



One thing is certain, the spiny wild yam called " gado" or "nikacimarron," which 

 forms dense thickets in the forests of Guam and furnishes the natives with food in 

 the periods of famine which follow hurricanes, is not the Dioscorea aculeata of Lin- 

 naeus, as was supposed by Gaudichaud. D. aculeata L. is very probably the species 

 described under that name by Seemann, a plant cultivated by the Fijians, in the 

 description of which Seemann does not mention branching sharp spiny processes 

 about the base of the stem, such as characterize the spiny yam of this island and 

 which are features of the Dioscorea aculeata of Roxburgh. According to Hooker, 

 Roxburgh's Dioscorea aculeata is identical with D. spinosa Roxb., & the description 

 of which corresponds to our gado. 



The typical nika of Guam resembles D. aculeata L., and corresponds very closely 

 with D. fasciculata lutescens, as described by Padre Blanco. c Some of the varieties 

 seem identical with D. papuana Warb. 



In the list of yams given by Schumann and Lauterbach as occurring in the Bismark 

 Archipelago and Kaiser Wilhelmsland, on the coast of New Guinea, are Dioscorea 

 glabra Roxb.; D. papuana Warb., perhaps the most extensively cultivated species; 

 D. pentaphylla L., growing on the edge of the forests; D. saliva L., which " produces 

 great tubers," growing in the woods, occurring also, according to Finsch, in Ponape, 

 Kuschai, and Ualan, of the Caroline Group; and D. alata, which is cultivated.^ 



According to Hooker, a part of Linnaeus' description of Dioscorea sativa e applies to 

 D. spinosa Roxb., to w r hich should also be referred D. aculeata Roxb., D. tiliaefolia 

 Kunth, and D. lanata Balf. Linnaeus' true D. sativa is a glabrous plant, the stem 

 terete, bulbiferous, the leaves broadly ovate-cordate, acuminate, cuspidate; and to it 

 should be referred D. bulbifera R. Br./ D. glabra is quite glabrous, with very variable, 

 long-petioled, opposite, caudate-acuminate leaves, the youngest acute at the base, 

 the older truncate or deeply cordate, the lobes sometimes 2.5 cm. long, incurved 

 and overlapping, orbicular, ovate-oblong, or hastate, strongly 7 to 9-nerved, and 

 reticulate, subglaucous beneath. In the face of so many conflicting authorities it 

 is hard to decide as to the species or recognized varieties cultivated in Guam. A 

 thorough study of the yams of this island is especially desirable, since most of the 

 varieties were cultivated by the natives before the discovery, ff 



The species of Dioscorea can not be understood from herbarium specimens alone. 

 The food-yielding varieties must be studied in the localities where they are cultivated, 

 and should be represented in herbaria by photographs of the growing plants, together 

 with their tubers, and, if possible, by typical tubers of each variety preserved in 

 formalin or some other liquid. It is only in this way that specimens from Polynesia, 

 India, the Malay Archipelago, Africa, Australia, and America can be compared. 



Plants belonging to the genus Dioscorea are herbaceous perennials with fleshy 

 tuberous roots and twining stems, which, as a rule, die down each year, allowing 

 the plant to rest through the dry season. Leaves having several longitudinal veins, 

 either entire, lobed, or digitately 3 to 5 foliolate, the petiole often angular and 

 twisted at the base. Flowers small or minute, panicled, racemose, or spicate, rarely 

 bisexual, the perianth superior, 6-cleft. Male flowers with the perianth tubular or 

 urn-shaped, its lobes shortly spreading. Stamens inserted at the base of the perianth 

 or on its lobes, 3 or 6, or 3 perfect stamens and 3 staminodes, the filaments incurved 

 or recurved, the anthers small, globose, oblong or didymous, or with the cells on 



Flora Indica, vol. 3, p. 800, 1832. 



t> Ex Wallich, Catalogue, No. 5703, A, B, C, D, E, F. 



c Flora de Filipinas, ed. gran, vol. 4. p. 260, 1880. 



^ Schumann und Lauterbach, Flora deutschen Schutzgebiete, pp. 223-224, 190L 



Species Plantarum, ed. 1, vol. 2, p. 1033, 1753. 



/Prodromus Flora Novas Hollandise, p. 294, 1810. 



9 One of the first Jesuit missionaries to visit the island was killed by a native in 

 consequence of a misunderstanding over some "nika" roots which the native failed 

 to deliver as he had promised. 



