172 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



A twining vine with alternate, abruptly pinnate leaves; leaflets small, linear-oval, 

 obtuse at apex and base, in 8 to 20 pairs; flowers pale purple to white, in axillary 

 racemes; legumes oblong, compressed, containing 4 to 6 hard, glossy, scarlet seeds 

 marked with a black spot. 



Very common in thickets throughout the island. Like many other leguminous 

 plants it is very sensitive to changes in the intensity of light, the leaflets hanging 

 down vertically at night, as though asleep, and rising with the dawn. These move- 

 ments are also caused in a measure by the overclouding and clearing of the sky. 

 When ripe the pods burst open, displaying the pretty, bright-colored seeds, which 

 are very conspicuous in the tangled undergrowth of the forest. The plant is of wide 

 distribution in the Tropics. It has evidently been introduced into Guam, where the 

 native name " kolales " (also applied to Adenanthera pavonina) is the Chamorro pronun- 

 ciation of the Spanish ' ' corales, ' ' signifying strings of corals or beads. ' ' Halom-tano ' ' 

 signifies "in-land" — that is to say, "growing in the forest" — an adjective specifying 

 many plants to distinguish them from allied species growing in cultivation or on 

 the seashore. 



In India the seeds are used by jewelers and druggists as weights, each seed weigh- 

 ing almost exactly one grain. The plant derived its former specific name "preca- 

 torius" from the fact that rosaries are made of the seeds. The Germans call them 

 " Paternostererbse. " In many tropical countries they are made into necklaces, 

 bracelets, and other ornaments. 



The seeds, known in pharmacy as jequirity beans, contain two proteid poisons, 

 which are almost identical in their physiological and toxic properties with those found 

 in snakes' venom, though less powerful in their effects. a In India the seeds are 

 ground to pow r der in a mortar, into which the natives dip the points of their daggers, 

 and the wounds inflicted by daggers thus prepared cause death. When a small 

 quantity of the powdered seeds is introduced beneath the skin fatal results follow; 

 less than 2 grains of the powder administered in this way to cattle cause death within 

 48 hours. One of these poisons, called "abrin," is a tox-albumen. It is easily 

 decomposed by heat, and in Egypt the seeds are sometimes cooked and eaten when 

 food is scarce, though they are very hard and indigestible. The root has been used 

 as a substitute for licorice. 

 References: 

 Abi^us abrus (L. ) 



Glycine abrus L. Sp. PL 2: 753. 1753. 

 Abrus precatorius L. Syst. ed. 12. 472. 1767. 

 Abrus precatorius. Same as Abrus abrus. 

 Abubo (Guam). See Argyreia tiliaefolia. 



Abutilon indicum. Indian mallow. 



Family Malvaceae. 



Local names. — Malbas, Matbas, Malva (Guam); Cuacuacohan, Tabing, Yam- 

 pong (Philippines). 



A low shrub with soft velvety leaves and orange-colored flowers, introduced into 

 Guam and now common in waste places. Leaves cordate, somewhat lobed, unequally 

 toothed or entire; calyx 5-cleft, without a leafy involucel; pedicels longer than th3 

 petioles, jointed near the flower; capsules truncate, carpels 11 to 20, acute, truncate 

 or shortly beaked. 



The plant is of wide tropical distribution. It yields a fairly good fiber, which 

 might be used for cordage. Its leaves contain mucilage, and are used in India in the 

 same manner as those of the marsh mallow in Europe. The seeds are laxative, and 

 in India the root is used as a remedy in leprosy. 

 References: 

 Abutilon indicum (L.) Sweet, Hort. Brit. 54. 1826. 

 Sida indica L. Cent. PL 2: 26. 1756; Amoen. Acad. 4: 324. 1759. 



«See Kunkel, A. J., Handbuch der Toxikologie, p. 993, 1901. 



