222 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



the leaves, which are bitter, are toasted and given in infusion to children in bowel 

 complaints and fevers, and they are applied as a remedy for bruises to check 

 inflammation. On the Malabar coast the plant is one of the remedies for leprosy, 

 for which it is said to be an excellent specific. « In southern Africa and in India it 

 is used as an alterative to purify the blood. It is said to be of value in syphilitic and 

 scrofulous affections. 

 References: 



Centella asiatica (L.) Urban in Mart. Fl. Bras. II 1 : 287. 1879. 

 Hydrocoiyle asiatica L. Sp. PL 1: 234. 1753. 

 Centotheca lappacea. Burgrass. 



Family Poaceae. 

 A tall perennial grass, with broadly lanceolate tessellately nerved leaves and a 

 branched woody rootstock. Spikelets 1 or 2-flowered, secund on the long branches of 

 a lax subsimple panicle, not jointed on the very short pedicels; rachilla jointed at 

 the base of and between the flowering glumes; glumes 5, the empty pair oblong- 

 ovate, keeled, 3 to 5-nerved, persistent; flowering glumes .oblong, acute, dorsally 

 rounded, 7-nerved, naked or the upper bearing above the middle soft, erect, at length 

 deflexed, tuberculate-based spines; palea shorter than the glume, its keels ciliolate; 

 lodicules none; stamens 2 or 3, anthers short; styles free; grain ovoid, acute, terete, 

 free. The leaves of this grass are 10 to 25 cm. long by about 3 cm. broad, many- 

 nerved, glabrous or sparsely hairy, midrib oblique, sheath glabrous or hairy, ligule 

 short, lacerate; panicle 20 to 25 cm. long and broad, branches smooth; spikelets 3.5 

 to 6 mm. long, green; rachilla scaberulous; palese often decurrent on the rachilla 

 below the glume. The upper palea is rather firm, very sharply 2-keeled, and even 

 at the time of flowering bow-shaped and bent outward. 



The species is of wide tropical distribution. It grows near the beach and in damp 

 upland regions. It is an excellent fodder grass. It is common in central India and 

 southward to Malacca, in the Andaman Islands and Ceylon, China, tropical Africa, 

 and the Philippines. In the Pacific it has been collected in Samoa, Admiralty 

 Islands, and the Caroline group. 

 References: 



Centotheca lappacea (L.) Desv. Nouv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 2: 189. 1810. 

 Cenchrus lappaceus L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 2 : 1488. 1763. 

 Ceratopteris gaudichaudii. Same as Ceratopteris thalictroides. 

 Ceratopteris thalictroides. Water fern. 



Local names. — Umug sensonyan (Guam); Midsu warabi (Japan). 

 An aquatic fern with divided fronds, eaten in Guam as a salad and in Japan as a 

 pot herb. The divisions of the fertile fronds are linear and much narrower than 

 those of the sterile ones. 

 References: 



Ceratopteris thalictroides (L.) Brogn. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1821:186, pi. [1]. 



1821. 

 Acrostichum thalictroides L. Sp. PL 2: 1070. 1753. 

 Oestrum nocturnum. Night-blooming cestrum. 



Family Solanaceae. 



Local names. — Dama de noche (Guam and Philippines); Galan de noche 

 (Cuba). 

 A glabrous shrub with greenish yellow tubular flowers which are very fragrant at 

 night. Leaves alternate, entire, ovate or ovate-oblong, with a rather blunt point; 

 racemes cymose, peduncled, exceeding the petiole; inferior pedicels often as long as 

 the calyx; calyx 5-dentate, about one-third as long as the corolla-tube; teeth ovate, 

 roundish, or deltoid; corolla-tube clavate, gradually tapering, glabrous; lobes ovate, 



«Drury, Useful Plants, India, p. 257. 



