310 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



IiObella koenigii. Fanflower. 



Family Goodeniaceae. 

 Local names. — Nanaso (<Tuam); Nauo (Solomon Islands); Bokabok, Balok- 



balok, Bosboron, Panabolong (Philippines); To'ito'iave'a (Samoa); Naupaka 



(Hawaii); Taccadia (India, Ceylon). 

 A shrub growing on the strand, widely spread throughout the tropical islands of 

 the Pacific and Indian oceans and on the shores of tropical Asia and Australia. 

 Stem branching extensively from the base, thick and succulent and full of pith 

 when young, but later becoming hard and woody. Leaves and inflorescence gen- 

 erally silky-pubescent, rarely glabrescent; leaves fleshy, obovate, tufted in the axils, 

 with long silky hairs, alternate, entire or rarely obscurely crenate, rounded at the 

 top or even emarginate, narrowed at the base into a short petiole, the nerves hidden; 

 cymes axillary, shorter than the leaf; bracts small; corolla white, often with purple 

 streaks, slit to the base on the upper side, its lobes mai^ined, spreading somewhat 

 like a miniature fan; calyx tomentose, 5-fid, the lobes linear-lanceolate, enlarging 

 in fruit; stamens 5, inserted at the base of the corolla, alternate with its lobes; 

 anthers free; style simple, with a cup-shaped ciliate indusium including the stigma; 

 fruit a round, succulent drupe, with a bony endocarp. 



Common near the shore, and like several other shore plants reappearing on the 

 treeless sabanas of the island. In India the young leaves are eaten as a pot herb. 

 The soft, snow-white pith, an inch in diameter or more, is sometimes cut into thin 

 paper-like flakes by the Siamese, Malayans, and Chinese and made into artificial 

 flowers, butterflies, and other objects. The wood is coarse, fibrous, and useless. 

 References: 



Lobelia koenigii (Vahl). 



Scaetola Jcoeniffii Vahl, S>-m. Bot. 3: 36. 1794. 



Lobelia sericea koenigii Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 2: 377. 1891. 

 The genus Lobelia as established by Linnjeus in the Species Plantarura 2 : 929. 1753 

 and Genera Plantarum ed. 5. 401. 1754, contained 2.5 species, only one of which 

 belonged to the Lobelia of Plumier from whom Linnseus adopted the name. This 

 species. Lobelia plumierii, was the first to be referred to a new genus, Scaevola, under 

 the name Scaevola lobelia, proposed by Linnfeus in 1771, and thus became its type 

 species. This treatment has been followed by most modern authors, but in the 

 application of the names in accordance with the principle of generic types the course 

 of several well-known authors who wrote soon after the appearance of the species 

 Plantarum seems to indicate a more careful regard for the correct application of 

 generic names. Xotable among these was Miller, who, in the seventh edition of the 

 Gardener's Dictionary, wisely restricted the name Lobelia to the original of Plumier 

 and the type species of the genus as established by Linnseus, and adopted the 

 Tonmefortian name Rapuntium for the species which modern authors (Otto Kuntze, 

 I think, alone excepted) have allowed to remain under the name Lobelia. 



Iiochnera rosea. Old maid. 



Family Apocynaceae. 



Local xames. — Yicaria, Dominica (Cuba) ; Madagascar periwinkle. 

 A plant growing in cultivation and in waste places with pretty salver-shaped rose- 

 colored flowers (sometimes white with acrimsoneye). Leaves spoon-shaped, oblong; 

 flowers subsessile in pairs from the same node of the stem; calyx 5-parted, seg- 

 ments lanceolate, acuminate, much shorter than the slender corolla tube; corolla 

 callous at the pubescent, narrow throat; stamens inserted upon the upper part of the 

 tube; ovaries 2, slightly cohering, alternating with 2 oblong disk glands, which 

 exceed the ovaries. This genus differs from Vinca in having the filaments thin and 

 the anthers and stigma not hairy. 



