74 REM AUKS AND OlINIONS. 



which bears a small eatable fruit, is cultivated on 

 account of the flax, which is procured from its 

 trunk, and which seems to deserve the preference 

 to many others. The fibres are of the whole 

 length of the stalk (about eiglit feet), and of differ- 

 ent fineness, according to their exterior or interior 

 situation ; so that the same plant furnishes the flax 

 from which the excellent cables are made, which 

 are here, for the most part, used by the Spanish 

 marine, and from which the fine-striped stuff" is 

 woven for the neat shirts, which are part of the 

 costume of these cleanly people.* 



A palm-tree {Palma de Cabello negro^ furnishes 

 a strong black bark, which is also used for manu- 

 facturing cords and cables. (The Chinese cables 

 braided of the prickly calamus, which many navi- 

 gators of the Great Ocean are obliged to use, is 

 said to be the worst and most unsafe.) This palm- 

 tree is cultivated and multiplied on account of its 

 great use. 



Lastly, the bamboo and prickly calamus must be 

 mentioned as the most serviceable plants in this 

 hemisphere. 



The Tagalese with his bolo (a knife, which he 

 constantly carries by his side, well ground, and 

 which is the only instrument he uses in all his 



* The Carolinians also prepare their stuffs, resembling mats, 

 from the fibres of the musa, which according to Kadu's accoimt, 

 is cut down for this purpose before it bears fruit. Do they also 

 possess the species above mentioned ? 



