100 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. II, April, 1948 
reveal the existence of some of these species, 
reducing the list of the missing ones. 
Some of the plants of Pingelap Atoll have 
vernacular names that are unique and local. 
Other plants, common to several of the islands, 
have names that are identical or so similar that 
they are doubtless linguistic variants. These 
are distinguished by italic type in the tabu¬ 
lation that follows. 
Names preceded by an asterisk were recorded 
in the field by the writer. The others are com¬ 
piled from sources listed in the bibliography. 
Those names were obtained over a span of 
more than a century and were recorded by 
French, German, Japanese, and American ex¬ 
plorers who all used their own orthography, yet 
the homology of their rendering of the vernac¬ 
ular names is striking and significant. 
TABLE OF VERNACULAR NAMES ON PINGELAP AND ADJACENT ISLANDS 
PLANT SPECIES 
ISLANDS AND LIST OF VERNACULAR PLANT NAMES 
Pingelap 
Ponape 
Truk 
Kusaie 
Marshall Is. 
Asplenium nidus 
♦seilik 
ngok, nuk, nuk 
moilukluk, 
♦mueyliklik 
♦kartep, 
karatup, ardap 
Nephrolepis 
biserrata 
♦pues 
rawtil 
emere, amare 
♦bairik 
Polypodium 
Phymatodes 
*kiteu 
kiteu, kitiu, 
kitheu, ketdu 
onnum, chichi, 
chiji, sichon 
kemkem, kilm, 
klim 
♦kino, ♦kwino 
Vittaria elongata 
♦lit 
♦wujoet 
Pandanus sp. 
*kipai 
kipar, kipal, taip 
kepar, fadj, fach 
me-ale, *muang 
♦bop, bob 
Thalassia 
Hemprichii 
*walat 
oldt 
♦wujoet in 
loidjit 
Eragrostis 
amabilis 
♦rosakai 
♦wujoet, 
♦wujoTch, 
♦wujues, 
♦ujoet, 
♦ujoich, ujos 
Lepturus repens 
♦ro sakai 
♦wujoet, 
♦wujoich bugur, 
♦wujues, 
♦ujoet, 
♦ujoich, 
ujoj, ujuj 
Saccharum 
officinarum 
*seu 
tseu, won 
wou, uou 
*taoh, ta 
*to, *dau 
Thuarea involuta 
♦mokarak 
unnom, unom 
♦wujoet, 
♦wujoich, 
♦wujues, 
♦uyoet, 
♦ujoet, 
♦ujoich, 
♦ujotch, ujuj, 
ujos maroro, 
♦kakumkum 
Cyperus 
javanicus 
*sdpasdp 
use 
nikaunoim, 
amana, moirer 
sapasap, *ujoet, 
♦wujoet, 
♦wujoet in ion 
buil 
