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834 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



serrateor incised, often irregular in shape; flowers small, in panicled umbels; pedicels 

 jointed close under the flowers; panicles 7.5 to 15 cm.; bracta minute, deciduous; 

 styles 2 (rarely 3), persistent on the laterally compressed fruit, recurved. 



Widely spread in India, the Malay Archipelago, and the islands of the Pacific. 

 Cultivated in villages and planted near houses. In Java it is used in the place of 

 celery and parsley and as food. The root has an agreeable and strongly aromatic 

 smell, tastes like parsley, and is used as a diuretic. In Fiji the bark is scraped oft 

 and is used medicinalh' by the natives. « 

 References: 



Xothopanaa: friiticosum (L.) Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. 1': 765. 1855. 



Panax fruiicosum. L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 2: 1513. 1763. 



Nupe (Guam). 



A climbing plant, not identified, the stems of which are used for lashing together 

 the framework of houses and sheds. When required for use they are rendered 

 flexible by heating. After the lashing is wrapped they contract and become rigid and 

 hard, so that they can not be unbent but must be cut if it is desired to remove them. 

 The}- are durable if kept dry. Another plant with a more slender stem, used in the 

 same way, is called "fianiti." 

 Nutgrass. See Ci/jienm rotundus. 

 Nyctaginaceae. Four-o'clock family. 



This family is represented in Guam by Mtrabilis jalajja and Boerhaavia diffusa. 

 Nypa fruticans. Nipa palm. 



Family Phoenicaceae. 



Local names. — Nipa (Guam, Philippines); Parran (Ponape); Ballang (Sulu 

 Archipelago). 



An interesting, stemless, unarmed palm with pinnate leaves often growing to a 

 length of 20 feet. Flowers moncecious, axillary, inclosed in a spathe; fruit, a one- 

 seeded drupe growing in clusters as large as a man's head. 



This plant was introduced into Guam from the Philippines for the sake of its 

 leaves, which make excellent thatch. It has established itself at the mouth of nearly 

 every stream in the island where the water becomes brackish, its graceful giant 

 leaves rising from the water's edge forming a striking feature of the landscape. The 

 plant is of interest to the geologist from the fact that fossil nuts of an allied species 

 are found in England in the tertiary formations at the mouth of the Thames, where 

 they once fioated about and embedded themselves in the mud as they now do in 

 Guam and the Philippines. 



For thatching, the leaflets are stripped from the rachis and formed into a thick 

 fringe (tagon) on a, reed. After having been thoroughly dried the thatch is secured 

 to the framework of the roof by lashings of pandanus leaves split up the middle and 

 deprived of their stiff keel. Two men work at a time on each reed, beginning at the 

 eaves and working toward the ridge, which is covered with a sort of braided matting 

 secured in place by pins passing under the ridge-pole and projecting on each side. 

 The nipa is far superior to and more durable than oocoanut thatch, and is used for 

 the better houses of the island. 



Preparations are made for thatching very much . as for a corn-husking with 

 us. The housewife begins saving up dulces and other good things months before- 

 hand. The nipa leaves are collected, made into fringe, and allowed to dry. 

 Pandanus leaves are collected and cured and stripped of their spiny-keeled 

 midrib. When all is ready relatives and neighbors are invited to assist, a pig 

 or a bullock is killed, and the work goes on amid feasting, tuba drinking, and 



t^Seemann, Flora Vitiensis, p. 115, 1865-1873. 



