V 



326 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



oblong fruit containing seeds surrounded by a red aril. Stems more or less hairy; 

 lobes of leaves sinuate-toothed, more or less hairy on the under side when young; 

 peduncles slender with a kidney-shaped bracteole, which in the male ones is above 

 the middle and in the female near the base; flowers of medium size, pale yellow; 

 fruits bursting open when ripe, showing the red aril. 



Cultivated in Guam, running along fences, etc. The fruit is bitter, but not 

 unwholesome. In India it is eaten in curries. Before cooking it must be steeped in 

 salt water. The plant is used as an external remedy in leprosy and malignant ulcers. 

 References: 



Momordica charantia L. Sp. PI. 2: 1009. 1753. 



Monggo (Philip pines). See Phaseolus mungo. 



Monggos (Guam). See Phaseolus mungo. 



Monggos paloma (Guam). Local name for Cleome viscosa. 



Monkey-pod (Honolulu). See Pithecolobium saman. 



Monkey-pod, sweet. See Pithecolobium dulce. 



Moraceae. Mulberry family. 



This family is represented in Guam by the genera Artocarpus and Ficus. 



Morinda citrifolia. Indian Mulberry." Plate xvi. ' 



Family Rubiaceae. 



Local names. — Ladda, Lada (Guam); Nino (Philippines); Nona (Malay Archi- 

 pelago); Niina (Southern India); Nono (P^arotonga, Tahiti); Nonu (Samoa); 

 Noni (Hawaii); Urati (Solomon Islands); Kura (Fiji). 



A small tree widely spread over the Pacific, the Malay Archipelago, southern 

 India, and the west coast of Africa; in India yielding the al dye of commerce, for 

 which purpose it is there cultivated. Branchlets 4-angled; leaves large, glossy, 

 ovate, attenuate at each end, short-petioled, with broad, membranous stipules, con- 

 nate below into a loose sheath inclosing the peduncle; peduncles solitary, opposite 

 the leaves, rarely binate, or ternate at the ends of the branches; flowers 5-merous, 

 growing in globose heads, white, the calyx tube short; corolla tube 12 mm. or less 

 long, lobes glabrous, fusiform in bud, throat pubescent; fruit of many drupes coales- 

 cent into a fleshy globose or ovoid head, inclosing many cartilaginous or bony 

 1 -seeded pyrenes. 



The seeds of this species are especially interesting, owing to their possession of a 

 distinct air chamber or vesicle, which renders them buoyant and capable of being 

 transported to great distances by ocean currents. & Not only have they been found 

 in the debris cast up at the high-water mark along tropical shores, but experiments 

 have been made which demonstrate the great length of time they will float in salt 

 water. c 



In Guam the tree is used for dyeing, though, owing to the trouble of preparing it, 

 the dye is not now so extensively used as before the introduction of coal-tar dyes 

 into the island. Both a red and a yellow color are obtainable, the bark of the root 

 being the source of the best red dye, the root itself yielding a yellow dye. 



The fruit is eaten in many of the Pacific islands, but it is insipid and very full of 

 seeds. In India it is gathered green and forms an ingredient in the curries of the 

 natives. 



References: 



Morinda citrifolia L. Sp. PI. 1: 176. 1753. 



a Watt, Economic Products of India, vol. 5, p. 261, 1891. 



&See Schimper, Die indo-nialayische Strandflora, p. 165, pi. vii, fig. 26, b and c, 1891 . 



c Guppy, The dispersal of plants, etc., Trans, of the Victoria Institute, 1890. 



