found to be the stems of some species of Cissus, Hntada 
and Vitis and the elastic aerial roots of some species of 
Ficus. These four plants are not used in Chinantec bas- 
ketry. 
In the Collection of Economic Plants of the Botanical 
Museum of Harvard University, there are three Chinan- 
tec baskets which were collected in San Juan Teotalcingo 
in June 1939. ‘wo of these are constructed of Desmoncus 
chinantlensis and are exceedingly strong; the third is 
made almost entirely of the aerial roots of Philodendron 
sagitifoium Liebmann, but with a framework of Des- 
moncus chinantlensis. 
In British Honduras, according to Bartlett (l.c¢., p. 
82), the following species of Desmoncus (very closely al- 
lied to D.chinantlensis) are used in making baskets: D. 
anomalus Bartlett, D.ferow Bartlett, D. Lundell Bart- 
lett, D. quasillanus Bartlett and D. uwxactunensis Bart- 
lett. In this connection, he writes: ‘“These related plants 
of northern Central America are called ‘basket tie-tie’ 
or ‘basket-whist’ by the inhabitants of British Honduras, 
and ‘bayal’ by the Spanish-speaking people and the Maya. 
In British Honduras, any vine is a ‘tie-tie’ and the Des- 
monc are the particular ‘tie-ties’ of which baskets are 
made, whence the name.’’ Similarly, Pittier (Plantas 
usuales de Costa Rica (1908) 114) stated that matamba 
(D.costaricensis (Kuntze) Burret)’ is used in the manu- 
facture of baskets in Nicoya. 
In South America, Desmoncus horridus Splitgerber ex 
Martius is used in basketry in Venezuela (Pittier: Man- 
ual de las plantas usuales de Venezuela (1926) 100-101). 
'Pittier reported matamba as Desmoncus oxyacanthos Martius, but, 
according to Standley (Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Bot. Ser. 18 (1937) 117), 
this plant is D.costaricensis, an endemic of Costa Rica. Standley like- 
wise notes the use of this plant is basket-making in Nicoya. 
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