DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 325 



Milkweed family. See Asclepiadqceae. 

 Milky mangrove (Australia). See Excoecaria agallocha. 

 Millet, Kodo. See Paspalum scrobiculatum. 

 Milo (Samoa, Hawaii). See Thespesia populnea. 

 Mimosa scandens L. Same as Lens phaseoloides. 



Mimosaceae. Mimosa family. 



This family is represented in Guam by Acacia farnesiana, Adenanthera pavonina, 

 Lens phaseoloides, Leucaena glauca, and Pithecolobium dulce. 

 Mint, Chinese. See Mentha arvensis. 



Mirabilis jalapa. Four-o'clock. Marvel-of-Peru. 



Family Nyctaginaceae. 



Local names. — Maravilla (Guam); Trompetilla, Don Diego de Noehe (Mexico); 



Buenas tardes (Panama); Wunderblume (German); Belle de Nuit (French). 



A glabrescent herbaceous plant bearing showy trumpet-shaped flowers of various 



colors. Leaves ovate or subcordate; flowers apetalous, the perianth consisting of a 



5-lobed corolla-like calyx encircled by a 5-lobed involucre; stamens 5; ovary 1-celled, 



ovule solitary, style simple. 



The flowers expand in the afternoon and wither the following morning. In Guam 

 they are often seen in the gardens of the natives; crimson, scarlet, white, yellow, 

 and variegated. Some of them are very fragrant, and some are odorless. In Japan 

 the powdered seeds are used as a cosmetic. 

 References: 

 Mirabilis jalapa L. Sp. PL 1: 177. 1753. 

 Miscanthus fioridulus. Same as Xiphagrostis floridula. 

 Miscanthus japonicus Anders. See under Xiphagrostis floridula. 

 Mitracarpum hirtum. 



Family Rubiaceae. ■■.> 



A herbaceous annual introduced from tropical America. Stem simple or few- 

 branched, hairy at the summit; leaves oblong or lanceolate, subsessile or shortly 

 petioled, opposite, connected by stipules divided into bristles; flower whorls and 

 heads many-flowered; calyx limb 4-parted, persistent, 2 of its segments rigid, 

 subulate-lanceolate, longer than the capsule, the other 2 shorter; flowers small; 

 corolla funnel-shaped, with 4 lobes; stamens 4, inserted on the margin of the tube; 

 ovary 2-celled, adherent to the calyx tube, capsule membranaceous or leathery, 

 circumcissile.« 



To this species should be referred Mitracarpum torresianum Cham. & Schlecht., 

 collected in Guam by Chamisso in 1818. & 

 References: 



Mitracarpum hirtum (L. ) DC. Prod. 4: 572. 1830. 

 Spermacoce hirta L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 1 : 148. 1762. 

 Mitracarpum torresianum Cham. & Schlecht. Same as Mitracarpum hirtum. 

 Moli (Samoa). See Citrus aurantium saponacea. 

 Moli-tai (Samoa). See Ximenia americana. 



Momordica charantia. Balsam-pear. 



Family Cucurbitaceae. 



Local names. — Balsamina, Amargosa (Spanish); Ampalia (Philippines) ; Cunde- 

 amar (Cuba, Porto Rico). 

 A climbing gourd-like vine with palmately 5-lobed leaves and warty, yellow, 



Schumann, in Engler und Prantl, Die Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien, Teil 4, Abt. 

 4, pp. 142, 146, fig. 46 U., 1891. 



b "Legimus in insula Guajan en insulis Marianis." Linnsea, vol. 3, p. 360. 1828. 



