250 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



Cotton-tree, silk. See Ceiba pentandra. 

 Cowhage or Cowitch plant. See Stizolobium pruriens. 

 Cowpea, twining- (United States). See Vigna sinensis. 

 Crab's-eye seeds (West Indies). See Abrus abrus. 



Cracca mariana. Goat's-rue. 



Family Fabaceae. 

 An undershrub. Stem erect, terete, villous; leaves pinnate, with 4 pairs of leaflets, 

 sessile; leaflets oblong, smooth above, silky-silvery beneath; stipules lanceolate, 

 elongate, hairy; axillary flowers close together, subsessile, the terminal ones sub- 

 racemose; pods narrow, upright, velvety-hairy, 10 to 12-seeded. Type specimen 

 from Marianne Islands, its leaflets nearly 5 cm. long by 8 to 12 mm. wide. Flowers 

 not observed. 

 References: 



Cracca mariana (DC.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 1: 175. 1891. 

 Tephrosia mariana DC. Prod. 2: 253. 1825. 



Crape myrtle. See Lagerstroemia indica. 



Crescentia alata. Crossleap. Calabash tree. 



Family Bignoniaceae. 



Local names. — Hikara (Guam); Jicara (Spanish, Mexico); Hojacruz (Manila); 

 Xicali (Aztec). 



A small tree with many wide-spreading branches and trifoliolate leaves with 

 winged petiole, bearing gourd-like fruit upon the trunk and larger limbs. Branches 

 angled, without thorns; leaves growing in threes from the axil, the middle one peti- 

 olate, 3-foliate, the lateral ones simple, smaller, sessile; petiole of the 3-foliolate leaf 

 broadly winged, forming together with the 3 leaflets a cross-shaped leaf; leaflets 

 linear-lanceolate or cuneate with crenate apex, membranous, sometimes 4 or 5 from 

 end of petiole, but these probably abnormal; bark thin, greenish; flowers develop- 

 ing from buds on the trunk and the older limbs and branches, the tree therefore 

 " cauliflorous,"« as in the case of Theobroma cacao and Averrhoa carambola. Flowers 

 large, fleshy, purplish, usually solitary, with a very short pedicel; calyx 2-parted, 

 deciduous; corolla campanulate, open-mouthed, tube curved, with a fold in the 

 throat; limb unequally 5-parted; stamens 4, didymous; ovary 1-celled, stigma 2- 

 lamellate; fruit globose, hard, indehiscent, many-seeded, in Guam about 10 cm. in 

 diameter. 



This species, first described from Acapulco, Mexico, has been introduced into the 

 Philippines and Guam. It was described by Padre Blanco as Crescentia trifolia. & 

 "They call it 'cross-leaf (hoja de cruz)," he says, "because the three leaflets with 

 the winged petiole form a cross." Its spreading branches form good perches for 

 fowls, and in building a rancho a site is often selected near one of these trees, so that 

 it may serve for this purpose. The fruit is too small to serve as calabashes, and it is 

 not used in Guam. 

 References: 



Crescentia alata H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 3: 158. 1818. 



Crescentia trifolia Blanco. Same as Crescentia alata. 



« Cauliflorie, d. h. Bluthenbildung am alten Holze in den immerfeuchten trop- 

 ischen Waldern nicht selten. Sie kommt dadurch zu Stande, dass ruhende axilliire 

 Knospen sich nach mehreren bis vielen Jahren weiter entwickeln und die Rinde 

 durchbrechend, ihre Bluthen frei entfalten. (Schimper, Pflanzen-geographie auf 

 physiologischer Grundlage, p. 360, 1898.) 



b Blanco, Flora de Filipinas, 489-490, 1837. 



