Study Under

Three-Year Pandanus Study Under Way in the Islands

THERE are 440 known species of the pandanus, but so far nobody has made an exhaustive study of the plant, and many new species may be discovered in the next three years. . .

Dr. Harold St. John, professor of botany at the University of Hawaii, is planning such a study with the aid of a 12,000 dollars’ grant from the National Science Foundation at Washington. His assistant, Mr. Benjamin C.

Stone, will spend much of the period in the Pacific islands gathering specimens.

Both men are at present in the - US Trust Territory islands.

“Some species of pandanus have delicious edible fruit, and there are spineless varieties which are greatly superior to anything we have in Hawaii for weaving,’’ says Dr. St John. “The plant, which grows in virtually all the tropical Pacific islands, is of great scientific in terest.”

In a letter to PIM, Dr. John seeks the co-operation of readers who may be in a position to send to him (at the Univedsity of Hawaii, Honolulu) specimens of pandanus with a record of origin, nature of the tree, its native name and uses.

For a female tree, a photograph

is desired, but the minimum speci men would be a leaf and three or four dry sections of the fruiting head, plus a statement of the size and shape of this head. The male trees are separate, and from these a leaf or flower cluster is wanted.

Dr. St. John’s request is made

particularly to readers living in re; mote islands. t A fast, modern, well-equipped Japanese fishing vessel, Iwate Maru put in to Tarawa for medical at! tention to a crew member durinj July.