388 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



The cacao plantations of Guam suffer greatly from the ravages of the brown, or 

 Norway, rat {Mus decumanus), which overruns the island and is a great pest. These 

 animals are immoderately fond of the beans, and sometimes destroy whole crops. 

 The trees are comparatively short-lived, often beginning to die at the top when 10 

 years old, and are subject to the attack of boring insects. On this account and on 

 account of the sensitiveness of the trees to hurricanes, which are not rare in Guam, 

 cacao is not cultivated extensively, the natives preferring to devote their energies to 

 clearing land for the longer-lived and hardier coconuts, which yield good and certain 

 returns. In places where conditions of soil and moisture are favorable for cacao 

 culture, it is recommended that belts of forest be left as a protection from wind. 

 Where the forest has been destroyed, artificial wind-breaks may be formed by plant- 

 ing trees and wild yams, which quickly form a solid matting of vegetation. If 

 leguminous trees are planted they will undoubtedly be a benefit to the soil as storers 

 of nitrogen. 



References: 



Theobroma cacao L. Sp. PL 2: 782. 1753. 

 Thespesia populnea. - Milo. 



Family Malvaceae. 

 Local names. — Kilulu, Quilulu (Guam); Bulakan, Bubui gubat (Philippines); 



Mulo (Fiji); Milo (Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii); Miro (Earotonga); 



Bonabeng (Yap); Pona, Pena, Pana (Ponape); Bengibeng (Gilbert Islands); 



Kaikaia (Bougainville Straits); Suriya-gas (Ceylon); Umbrella tree, Tulip 



tree (British India); Majagua de Florida (Cuba); Palo de jagueca (Porto 



Eico). 

 A tree growing near the coast, with showy yellow flowers which change to a 

 purplish-pink color on withering. Branches spreading; young twigs covered with 

 peltate scales; leaves 7 to 12 cm. long, broadly ovate, entire, acute, or acuminate, 

 cordate at base, palmately 7- veined, more or less covered on both sides with minute 

 peltate scales, sometimes with a glandular pore beneath between the bases of the 

 veins; petioles 2.5 to 7.5 cm. long, stipules subulate, deciduous; flowers axillary, soli- 

 tary, campanulate, 5 to 7.5 cm. in diameter; peduncles 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long, bracteoles 

 lacking or very early deciduous; calyx cup-shaped, truncate, the teeth obscurely 

 marked; petals 5; stamens indefinite, filaments forming a tube; capsule about 2.5 

 cm. long, depressed globose, somewhat lobed, 4 or 5-celled, surrounded at the base by 

 the persistent calyx, more or less covered with peltate scales, indehiscent or irregu- 

 larly dehiscent; seeds woolly, large, compressed. As in many species of Hibiscus, 

 the 5 styles are connate, or grow together; ovary 4 or 5-celled, with many ovules in 

 each cell ; stigma club-shaped. 



A favorite shade tree, growing wild and often planted about villages in Polynesia. 

 The heartwood is hard, smooth, durable, and of a dark-red color. The Hawaiians 

 sometimes make poi calabashes of it, and it has been called "Polynesian rosewood." 

 The bark is tough and fibrous, but for cordage is inferior to that of Pariti tiliaceum. 

 It is one of the commonest trees of Guam. This tree is of very wide distribution. 

 It ranges from tropical Asia, Africa, and Madagascar across the Pacific to Hawaii 

 and Easter Island, and also occurs in tropical America and the West Indies. The 

 identity of its name in islands so widely separated as Earotonga and Hawaii is 

 interesting. 



Eeferences: 



Thespesia populnea (L.) Soland.; Correa, Ann. Mus. Par. 9: 290. t. 8. f. 2. 1807. 



Hibiscus populneus L. Sp. PI. 2: 694. 1753. 



Malvaviscus populneus Gsertn. Fruct. 2: 253. t. 135. f. 3. 1791. 

 Trior ea gaudichaudii. See Algx. 

 Thornapple. See Datura fastuosa. 



