122 ROBINSON. 
or twisted into yarn, stiffened in a gelatine bath, and sized together into 
small ribbons^ or woven by machines into a lace. From these hats may 
be made, but they are very different from any Philippine product. 
NITO HATS. 
The name nito is applied indiscriminately to any of tlie species of 
Lygodium, climbing ferns, common throughout the Philippines, of which 
at least three have been used for hats. It was one of the first materials 
employed for this purpose in the Philippines, and its use is no longer 
general although not discontinued. This product is largely confined to 
Calapiao and Albay, but with a scattered output elsewhere. 
As these hats are made now, the stems of the fern are usually split into 
three, and made of the requisite thickness and width by the methods used 
in the locality for the preparation of other materials. They are woven 
with the original outer surface exposed to view. As this is naturally 
brown to black, the hats or cigaretto-cases made from niio are of those 
colors. They are woven either single or double, alone or alternating with 
other materials. This latter practice appears to have been commoner in 
the past than it is now. It now probably is impossible, in Luzon, to buy 
a nito hat for much imder two pesos, a fairly good double one would cost 
about three times as much, the highest grades must be expensive, but 
they practically never get on the market. These last may be very beau- 
tiful, few hats equalling in this respect some which were among the 
exhibits at Madrid, in 1887, and are now in tlie Museum of the Bureau 
of Science. These may well be compared with the better grades of 
rattan. The ordinary grades of nito are well adapted to use by such 
persons as prefer hats of naturally dark color, and it is possible that the 
trade might be revived with some success. There is a persistent story that 
the very best hats of Calasiao are made of white nito, but very well- 
informed workers there neither knew of this, nor could they obtain any 
confirmation of the report. Still, the stem of Lygodium circinnatum, the 
species used tliere, is sometimes in part 6f light color. In the Visayas, 
nito hats are cheaper than in Luzon, but usually of much poorer quality. 
Formerly also, entire stems of nito were employed in an open weave, 
called linca. I have only seen one hat of this kind, and it was over 25 
years old. Its general appearance can be judged from the fact that it 
took several persons to convince me that it was not a huntah that had in 
some way acquired a dark color. 
TICOG OR TAYOCTAYOC HATS. 
While the sedge Fimhristylis utilis Elmer is widely distributed from 
at least the east coast of Luzon to Mindanao, it is in tlie Visayas that 
it has its greatest economic importance. Basey, in Samar, has the widest 
reputation for its use and especially for mats made from it, but the work 
extends as far as Panay. In Bohol, hats and mats are made from it in 
