276 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



of the trurrk into the ground, and berries, like small red crab apples in appearance, 

 but fibrous within, like the fruit of a rose. These berries are much relished by the 

 starling-like sali. The tagete, or taguete, as it is written by the Spaniards, is some- 

 what like the nunu, but its large aerial roots grow exclusively from the trunk. The 

 wood of both is used for fuel. 



Ficus carica. Fig. 



Local names. — Higo (Spanish). 



The edible fig grows in Guam, but for some reason it does not thrive well and is 

 not abundant. It sheds its leaves in the cold season. It is interesting to note that 

 in Bengal, where the climate resembles that of Guam, its culture has not met with 

 success. 



References: 



Ficus carica L. Sp. PI. 2: 1059. 1753. 

 Fig. See Ficus carica. 

 Filices. See Ferns. 

 Fimbristylis. 



A genus of Cyperaceae, usually known as "club-rushes." Leaves all toward the 

 base of the stem, narrowly linear or filiform, rarely reduced to sheaths; inflorescence 

 terminal, umbelled or capitate, bracteate, the bracts long or short; spikelets terete, 

 angular, or compressed, many-flowered; glumes imbricated all around the rachilla, 

 or the lower distichous, very rarely all distichous, glabrous, very rarely pubescent, 

 deciduous, lower 1 to 3, and sometimes the upper empty; flowers bisexual without 

 bristles; stamens 1 to 3; filaments flat; anthers linear, obtuse, acute or tipped with 

 a subulate process; nut obovoid, biconvex or trigonous, very rarely cylindric; style 

 long, flattened or slender, deciduous with its dilated base, leaving no scar on the 

 nut; stigmas 2 in the biconvex nuts, 3 in the trigonous, usually filiform and elon- 

 gate. This genus embraces many tropical species. The following have been collected 

 on the island of Guam. 



Fimbristylis affinis. Same as Fimbristylis diphytta. 

 Fimbristylis complanata. 



A sedge growing in low moist places to a height of 2 or 3 feet, with a leafy stem 

 and a decompound effuse umbel of compressed spikelets. Rootstock small, hard, 

 creeping, leafy, wiry; stem flattened, 2-edged, deeply furrowed and ribbed, quite 

 smooth; leaves very many, crowded round the base of the stem, and .shorter than it, 

 erect, flat, linear, coriaceous, tip obliquely narrowed, obtuse or subacute, margins 

 scaberulous, sheath coriaceous; branches of umbel bearing many small, shortly pedi- 

 celled, brown spikelets; bracts one-half as long as the umbel, one leaf-like, erect, the 

 rest subulate; spikelets oblong or ovoid-oblong, few-flow r ered, lower glumes more or 

 less distichous, lowest narrower, subulate or cuspidate, empty, rachilla short, wings 

 deciduous; glumes oblong, obtuse, mucronate, sides appressed together; stamens 3, 

 anthers very long, obtuse; nut stipitate, 3-gonous, minutely warted, pale; style 

 twice as long as nut, slender, glabrous, base conical, stigmas usually 3, long. 



A plant widely distributed throughout the warmer regions of the globe. 

 References: 



Fimbristylis complanata (Retz. ) Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 292. 1827. 

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

 Isolepis complanata Roem. & Schult. Syst. 2: 119. 1817. 

 Fimbristylis diphylla. 



Collected by Haenke, Gaudichaud, and Lesson. Stigmas 2; spikelets umbelled or 

 capitate, glabrous; glumes mucronate; leaves many. 

 References: 



Fimbristylis diphylla (Retz.) Vahl, Enum. 2: 289. 1806. 

 Scirpus diphyllus Retz. Obs. 5 : 15. 1789. 



