-^ The Liberian Flora 



filaments of its leaves are used for a variety of purposes — for 

 thatch, for plaiting into mats, baskets, etc., etc. The fibrous 

 stem of the fronds fulfils innumerable purposes in local manu- 

 factures, and the complete stems are used in building houses. 

 The fibre of the stems and trunk becomes the well-known 

 piassava of commerce, used for making brooms, brushes, etc. 

 The Oil palm has been alluded to in several other chapters 

 of this work, and needs no further description ; the same 



230. KAl'HIA VINIKEKA I'ALM 



may be said of the Borassus or Fan Palm. The Coconut is 

 now met with all along the Liberian coast, and even some 

 distance into the interior up the rivers. It is of course no 

 true native, but has come at some time or other from the 

 Pacific Ocean, possibly by way of America. 



The Pandanus or screw pine is a familiar object in all 

 the tidal marshes along the coast, mixed with the mangrove. 

 It is possible that a species of pandanus also grows on higher 

 ground and in the interior away from the sea, just in the same 

 way that a form of pandanus grows along the banks of rivers 



553 



