RADACK AVD OTHEK ISLANDS. 153 



Old trees are however found even in some of 'the 

 poorer ones. Its wood, as well as its fruit, is valu- 

 able, being employed for the keel of their boats ; 

 the other planks are made of drift wood. They 

 are joined together with strings of cocoa-bast, and 

 the joints caulked with pandanus leaves. The 

 bread-fruit tree also produces a resin, which is used 

 for various purposes. The bread-fruit tree, like all 

 cultivated plants, has several varieties. The only 

 one that occurs here deviates very little from the 

 orginal form ; its fruit is small, and the kernels often 

 perfect. 



A useful bast is procured from the bark of 

 three different species of plants found here in a 

 wild state. The principal is a shrub of the liimily 

 of nettle (a Boemeria ? ) the Aromci, which grows 

 only upon richer and moister soil. 



The Aroma produces a white thread of uncom- 

 mon fineness and strength. The Atahat (Trium- 

 j)hctla prociimbens, Forst.) is a creeping plant j it is 

 common, and, with the Cassytay covers the most 

 sterile sand. Men's aprons are chiefly made of its 

 brown bast ; they consist of loose strips of bast, 

 which are sewed to a girdle of mat. It is also 

 used for the ornamental borders in the finer mats. 

 The fine white bast of the Hibiscus j^opulneus (Lo,) 

 which we found in Radack on the Aur group, is 

 used for the same purpose. In the Sandwich 

 islands, and other places, strings are made of 

 this bast. 



