346 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



This grass is eaten by (rattle. It was first collected in Guam by Chamisso. 

 REFERENCES: 



Panicum distac?iyum L. Mant. 1 : 183. 1767. 



Panicum gaudich.aud.ii. 

 Family Poaceae. 



LOCAL NAMES. Umog, Uuma (Guam). 



A grass with digitate spikes. Smooth; culms growing in tufts, upright, undivided; 

 leaves flat; spikes 12 to 16, fasciculate, crowded, ascending; spikelets solitary, biseri- 

 ate, hispidulo-scabrous. This species was described from a plant collected on the 

 island of Guam by Gaudichaud. 

 REFERENCES: 



Panicum gaudichaudii Kunth, Rev. Gram. 2: 385. t. 106. 1830. 

 Digitana slricta Gaudich. Bot. Freyc. Voy. 409. 1826, not Roth, 1821, 

 Panoche (Guam). See under Saccharum officinarvm. 

 Papau or Papao (Guam) . 



Caulescent aroids (Alocasia spp. ) with cordate leaves growing along the borders of 

 streams on the island of Guam. The natives distinguish two varieties, papau upaka 

 or " white papau," and papau pinto. Their stems, which are very acrid, grow to a 

 height of 1 to 2 meters. In early times they were eaten by the natives during the 

 periods of famine which followed huriicanes. 

 Papaw. See Carica papaya. 



Papaya (Spanish, Philippines). See Carica papaya. 

 Papua (Guam, Philippines). See Nothopanax fruticosum. 

 Paraiso (Spanish, Guam). See Melia azedarach. 

 Parasites. 



Among the parasitic plants are Cassytha filiform is, a leafless, wiry plant growing in 

 thickets, and adhering to the branches by root-like tubercles by which they derive 

 their nourishment; and a species of Balanophora, a low, fleshy, leafless, red plant 

 growing on the roots of other plants, common in thickets, especially on the hill 

 above San Ramon. 



Pariti tiliaceum. CORKWOOD. PLATE LXI. 



LOCAL NAMES. Pago (Guam); Balibago (Philippines); Buro, Ytiro (Madagascar); 

 Fau (Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji); An (Rarotonga); Hau (Hawaii); Managua, Mahoe 

 ( VV. Indies); Emajagua (Porto'Rico); Managua, Masagua, Masahua (Mexico); 

 Majagua (Panama); Kalau, Kala-hau (Ponape); Gili-fau (Mortlocks); Kal 

 (Yap). 



A common seacoast tree with spreading branches, yellow T flowers with dark centers, 

 and bark which yields a fiber valuable for cordage. Leaves on long petioles, orbic- 

 ular-cordate, shortly acuminate, entire or crenulate, white or hoary underneath w T ith 

 a close, short tomentum, nearly glabrous above, 7 to 13 cm. in diameter; midrib 

 with an elongated vaginate nectar gland near its base on the lower surface; stipules 

 large, broadly oblong, deciduous; flowers on short peduncles in the upper axils or 

 at the ends of the branches; involucre campanulate, divided to about the middle 

 into 10 to 12 lobes, about half the length of the calyx; calyx 5-lobed, nearly 2.5 cm. 

 long, with lanceolate 1-nerved lobes; staminal column bearing numerous filaments 

 on the outside below the summit; ovary 5-celled, with 3 or more ovules in each cell; 

 style branches 5, spreading^ with terminal capitate stigmas; capsule membranous or 

 coriaceous; seeds nearly globular, with granular surface. 



In Guam this species is abundant. The natives make cordage of its inner bark, 

 nearly every family being provided with rope-making appliances. The ropes are 

 used for halters and lines for tethering cattle and carabaos, for harness, and for 

 cables for ferrying the bamboo balsas, or rafts, across the mouths of the rivers on the 



