318 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



with poultry. Hens fed on cassava roots are said to become fat and not to lay well. 

 It is not advisable to feed it to growing chickens or laying hens, but it is an excellent 

 and inexpensive food for fattening chickens for the table. « The roots are so succulent 

 and tender that they can be eaten readily without further preparation than chopping 

 them up, and they are apparently relished as much by poultry as by cattle and hogs. & 

 References: 



Manihot manihot (L.) Karst. Deutsch. Fl. 588. 1880-83. 



Jatropha manihot L. Sp. PI. 2: 1007. 1753. 



Manihot utilissima Pohl, PI. Bras. Ic. 1 : 32. t. 24. 1827. 



Manila hemp. See Musa textilis. 

 Manila tamarind (India). See Pithecolobiiim dulce. 

 Maniuniu (Samoa). See Coix lachryma-jobi. 

 Mankit (Philippines). See Meibomia gangetica. 

 Mantofa (Samoa). See Urena sinuata. 

 Manzanas (Guam). 



Spanish name for apple, applied in Guam to the introduced .jujube tree, Zizyphus 

 jujuba. 

 Manzanilla. 



A name applied in Guam and the Philippines to Chrysanthemum indicum, the 

 flowers of which are used medicinally like those of Camomile. 

 Manzanitas (Philippines). See Zizyphus jujuba. 

 Mapola (Guam). The local name for Hibiscus mutabilis. 

 Mapunao (Guam). A small tree used for fuel and for fence stakes. 

 Maranon (Panama). See Anacardium occidentale. 



Maranta arundinacea. Arrowroot. Plate xxv. 



Family Marantaceae. 



Local names. — Aroru, Aruru, Sagu (Guam); Araro, Ararao, Araru (Philip- 

 pines); Sagu cimarron (Mexico). 



An introduced plant of American origin, the tuberous rhizomes of which (Plate 

 XXV, p. 145) are the source of the well-known arrowroot of commerce. Herbace- 

 ous, branched; leaves alternate, ovate-oblong, pointed, puberulous, with a cylin- 

 drical knob between the blade and the sheathing petiole; inflorescence loose, spread- 

 ing; bracts in two vertical ranks; flowers small; calyx of 3 sepals; corolla white, tube 

 obliquely tubular, equaling the calyx, club-shaped, about twice as long as the lobes; 

 petal-like staminodes arranged so that the two exterior form an upper lip and the two 

 interior form a lower lip, those of the upper lip exserted, exceeding the lateral 

 staminodes, another free from the petaloid filament; ovary 1-ovuled by abortion; 

 style incurved; stigma 3-angular; capsule membranaceous; seed ovoid-oblong, 

 tubercled; embryo curved. 



This plant is propagated from the tubers, very much after the manner of potatoes. 

 They are planted just before the rainy season sets in, and the rhizomes are dug in 

 the dry season. The smaller ones and the pointed tips of the larger ones, at the 

 extremities of which the eyes are situated, are reserved for planting. c 



To prepare the fecula or arrowroot from the rhizomes they are washed clean, put 

 into a wooden mortar and pounded to a pulp. The pulp is then put into a large 

 vessel of water, which will become turbid and milky, a portion of the pulp remain- 

 ing suspended as a fibrous mass. This fibrous portion is rinsed and put once more 



« Tracy, Cassava, U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bull. No. 58, p. 29, 1903. 

 &See also Morong, Mandioca, Bull. Pharmacy, vol. 5, p. 260, 1891. 

 c Firminger, Manual of gardening for Bengal, p. 125, 1890. 



