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botanists do not agree whether this pandan constitutes a distinct 

 species or is only a more or less cultivated variety of the common 

 sea-shore pandan. No further preparation except the removal 

 of its spines is practised. The strips are sometimes bleached, 

 but with rather indififerent success. The fiber if properly 

 bleached would be excellent for "Panama" hats. This screw- 

 pine is used extensively by Filipinos for hats and for their best 

 quality of mats. 



A screw-pine with coarse leaves is Pandanus utilissimus . The 

 leaves of this screw-pine must be rolled under heavy logs before 

 they can be used. The strips are utilized for mats and telescope 

 baskets, and are exported in large quantities from Laguna 

 Province to the Manila market. 



Another pandan of economic importance, used especially in 

 the southeastern provinces of Luzon, is Pandanus simplex. This 

 pandan is not as coarse as P. utilissimus and is utilized in the 

 same way as the latter. 



Among the pandans used occasionally are P. copelandii, P. 

 dubius, P. luzonensis and P. radicans. 



Grasses 



Bamboo, especially the cultivated species Bamhusa blumeana, 

 plays a highly important role in the daily life of the Filipino 

 people. The majority of the houses in the Philippines are built 

 of bamboo. Long hollow bamboo tubes serve for carrying 

 drinking water from river or well. The aborigines (Negritos) 

 cook rice, their principal food, in green sappy bamboo over an 

 open fire. The rafts that carry the products up and down the 

 river are made of bamboo. So in a thousand and one ways 

 bamboo enters intimately into the daily economic life of the 

 people. It is not however its general uses that will be considered 

 here, but its use in the making of hats. 



The spiny bamboo, Bamhusa blumeana, is the species usually 

 employed in the manufacture of hats. The bamboo is felled 

 when it is from four to five months old before it has developed 

 any branches. At this age the bamboo is perhaps fifty or more 

 feet high. Only the middle internodes of the stem, fifteen to 



