624 Philippine Journal of Science 1919 
FICUS BENJAMINA Linn. Balete.™ 
Local names: Aufvgu (Isabela) ; baléte (Ilocano) ; baletéon, salisi (Nueva 
Vizcaya); balete-puld (Laguna, Tayabas); baléti (Abra, Bataan, Cama- 
rines, Cavite, Ilocos Norte, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, 
Pampanga); baliti (Pampanga); baliting-ibon (Batangas, Rizal); gisi 
(Ibanak, Apayao Subprovince); kolis (Bataan); kuliamat (Negrito in 
Bataan); sirisin (Cagayan). 
A strangling fig with coriaceous, glabrous, densely nerved, 
smooth, entire leaves and small, axillary, globose fruits; through- 
out the Philippines at low altitudes. 
Ficus benjamina bast strips are salmon-buff and show con- 
siderable variation; some are soft and pliable, others are hard 
and stiff. They vary in width from 2 to 5 millimeters, their 
average thickness is 0.60 millimeter, and their mean length is 
1,227 millimeters. The strands are about ten strips thick. 
When dry, rope made from this bast has a medium tensile 
strength and breaking length. Wetting the fiber reduces the 
tenacity by 2 per cent, which for practical purposes is negligible. 
All of the five wet test specimens ruptured in the unspliced 
portion of the rope, whereas two of the five dry ones failed 
in eye-splices. The maximum variations from the mean ten- 
sile strength in the dry and the wet series were 19 and 22 per 
cent, respectively. Immersion in water gives rise to a markedly 
higher mean elongation. In the Philippines bast from Ficus 
benjamina is not commonly used for rope making owing to 
its comparative scarcity. 
A summary of the tests of this species made in the Bureau 
of Science is given in Table XXX. 
TABLE XXX.—Physical tests of rope made from the bast of Ficus 
benjamina. 
[Rope made at Langiden, Abra Province.] 
‘Mean diameter: : 
Millimeters G8 
Inches 0.29 
Mean perimeter, or girth: 
Millimeters = 23 
Inches 0.91 
True mean sectional area: 
Square millimeters 32.5 
Square inches 0.050 
““Balete” or “baliti,’” in the majority of Philippine dialects, is @ 
broadly generic term used to designate all the “strangling” figs (Ficus 
spp.), and is rarely or never applied to any epiphytic or climbing plant 
of any other family. 
