268 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



upper tabescent; hypogynous bristles 5 to 8, rarely fewer; stamens 1 to 3, anterior; 

 anthers linear-oblong, not crested; style linear, as long as nut, 2 or 3-fid; style base 

 dilated, constricted, or apparently articulated on nut, but usually persistent. Nut 

 obovoid, plano-convex (when style is bifid), or trigonous (when style is trifid). 



The stem is robust, terete, transversely septate when dry, spikelet dark straw- 

 colored, hardly wider than stem, elongated, many-flowered. Plant stoloniferous, 

 stolons long, 4 mm. in diameter; stems 30 to 90 cm. high, slender; sheaths mem- 

 branous, soon torn. 



In Ceylon sleeping mats are made of the culms of this species, specimens of which 

 are preserved in the Kew Museum. In Madagascar the natives braid them into 

 mats, baskets, and hats.« 

 References: 

 Eleocharis plantaginoidea ( Rottb. ) . 



Sdrpusplanldginoid.es Rottb. Desc. et Ic. PI. 45. t.15. f.2. 1773. 

 Scirpus plantagineus Retz. Obs. 5: 14. 1789. 

 Eleocharis plantagineu R. Br. Prod. 224. 1810. 

 Elephantopus scaber. Blue elephant's-foot. 



Family Asteraceae. 



Local names. — Lengua de vaca (Porto Rico); Erva da Collegio (Brazil). 

 A stiff hairy herb, 30 to 90 cm. high, with wrinkled, crenate, cuneate radical 

 leaves. Stem dichotomously branching; cauline leaves lanceolate, floral ones broadly 

 cordate, acuminate, canescent; heads very numerous, sessile, closely packed, form- 

 ing a large flat-topped terminal inflorescence nearly 2.5 cm. wide, and surrounded 

 at the base with 3 large, stiff, broadly ovate, conduplicate, leafy bracts; involucral 

 bracts 8, in two rows, linear, acuminate, the outer ones half as long as the inner 

 and scarious, flowers exserted; corolla tube long, very slender, lobes widely spread- 

 ing; style very much exserted, tapering, pubescent, its branches recurved; achene 

 truncate, nearly glabrous. 



Widely distributed in the Tropics. Introduced into Guam. Flowers bright pale 

 violet; a small amplexicaul acute leaf at each bifurcation of the scabrous flowering 

 stem. Used as a remedy for asthenic fever. 

 References: 

 Elephaniopus scaber L. Sp. PI. 2: 814. 1753. 

 Elephantopus spicatus. White elephant's-foot. 



Local names. — Dilang usa, Habal (Philippines). 

 A branched, rigid, perennial herb of American origin, but now widely spread in 

 the Tropics. Glomerules 2 or 3-bracteate, in interrupted, spreading, compound spikes; 

 flowers white; heads few-flowered, discoid, 1 to 3 in a glomerule; pappus 1-serial, 

 unequal, with several of the stouter bristles bent upward and downward below the 

 summit. The inferior leaves are spathulate-oblong, variable in breadth, subentire or 

 crenate; superior leaves lanceolate; heads long-linear, 3 or 4-flowered. 



A common, troublesome weed, growing usually by roadsides and in waste places. 

 Collected in Guam by Chamisso. 

 References: 

 Elephantopus spicatus Aubl. PI. Gui. 2: 808. 1775. 

 Eleusine aegyptiaca. Same as Dactyloclenium aegyptiacum. 



Eleusine indica. Yard grass. 



Family Pocaeae. 



Local names. — Umog (Guam); Pata de gallina (Cuba). 

 A tufted grass with flat leaves and digitate spikes at the summit of the culm. 

 Spikelets several-flowered, sessile, closely imbricated in two rows on one side of the 



« Baron, Economic plants of Madagascar, Kew Bull., vol. 45, p. 211, 1890. 



