FORAGE PLANTS. 151 



of which are gathered for this purpose. The branches of several 

 leguminous shrubs and of Muring a moringa are much relished by 

 cattle, and the plants of the cultivated Phaseolus mungo and of peanuts 

 form excellent forage. Attempts have been made to cultivate alfalfa 

 {Medicagu sativa), but this plant evidently flourishes best in dry cli- 

 mates where irrigation is practiced. It does not thrive in Guam. The 

 nearest approach to clover on the island is the tiny Meibomia tri- 

 fl&ra, which grows close to the ground and forms a thick sward in 

 places where the grass does not crowd it out. 



Cattle and hogs are very fond of the fruit of Artocarpus communis. 

 After hurricanes, when the ground becomes covered with breadfruit, 

 hogs eat great quantities of it and become very fat. The sweet pods 

 of Pithecolobium dulce are also eaten hj animals. Prosopis julijiora, 

 which is an important forage tree in the Hawaiian Islands, has not yet 

 become established in Guam. Cattle and horses feed upon its foliage 

 as well as upon its pods, and there is no reason why it should not 

 thrive on the island. 



Among the grasses the most nutritious is Bermuda grass ( Capriola 

 dactylon), called "grama" by the natives. It grows luxuriantly in 

 the sandy soil of the lowlands. Pactyloctenium aegyptiacum and 

 Eleusine indica are edible, but coarse and not much relished by horses. 

 Stalks of green maize and the leaves of ripe maize are excellent for 

 food. Many of the coarser grasses growing in damp places which 

 horses and cattle will not eat are eaten by buffaloes. Reeds. (Trichoon 

 roxburghii) are often collected for fodder, and are especially relished 

 by buffaloes. They are rather coarse when old for cattle, but the 

 young shoots are eaten by them. 



Among the plants elsewhere reputed to be injurious to animals is 

 Leucaena glauca, an introduced shrub, which is very common in the 

 Bahama Islands. Mr. L. H. Dewey, of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, while on the island of New Providence was shown 

 horses, without manes or tails, which had lost them, it was declared, 

 as the effect of eating this plant. 



The number of tropical weeds which have found their way to Guam 

 is remarkable. In waste places, along the roadsides, on the borders 

 of rice fields, and among growing vegetables, nearly all the weeds are 

 of species widely spread over the warmer regions of the world. 

 Some of them, like the malvaceous Urena and tiliaceous Triumfetta 

 have prickly, bur-like fruits with hooked spines; others like the milk- 

 weed (Asdepias curassavica) have silky pappus attached to the seed, 

 which provides for their dispersal by the wind. There are also com- 

 posites (Glossogyne) with retrorsely scabrid bristles attached to their 

 achenes, and marsh plants with seeds which readily adhere to the feet 



