FIBER PLANTS 191 



have a spread of 3 feet or more. The leaves of various other 

 species of Chamaerops as well as Spanish moss are used for 

 similar purposes. The sabal palmetto, or cabbage palmetto 

 of Florida, develops fibrous spathes upon the leaf sheaths 

 around the "cabbage." This material is prepared by crushing 

 and combing for use in manufacturing brushes, hats, and for 

 other purposes. The saw palmetto, a dwarf trunkless palm 

 of Florida and Georgia, yields a fiber from the leaf stems 

 which is used to some extent as a substitute for cow hair in 

 mortar. 



The Panama hat plant (Carludovica palmata), a native of 

 Central America and South America and cultivated in Ecuador, 

 Colombia, Peru, and other countries, bears plaited, fan-like 

 leaves 4 feet across and incised into 4 or 5 divisions. The 

 young leaves are cut at the time of unfolding, after which 

 they are torn into ^-mch strips and later into narrower strips 

 or straws, bleached by sulphuring, and dried in the sun. This 

 material brings 50 to 60 cents a pound at the point of produc- 

 tion. The plants mature at about 3 years of age. C. jamai- 

 censis is used in a similar way in making jippa-jappa hats. 



The lace bark tree (Lagetta lintearia) of Jamaica attains a 

 height of 25 to 30 feet. The inner bark is readily separated 

 into sheets which when stretched form a pentagonal mesh 

 structure like lace and much used for ornamental purposes. 

 The bark of this tree resembles that of the paper birch. It 

 is of a yellowish-white color and in addition to ornamental 

 uses has been found valuable for paper cordage and even 

 in the manufacture of cloth. 



Pulu is a lustrous, golden-brown fiber which develops at 

 the base of the leaf stalks of the large tree ferns which occur 

 so abundantly in the mountains of Hawaii and other Pacific 

 Islands. This material has been much used for stuffing pil- 

 lows and in surgery in stanching the flow of blood. Each 

 plant yields 2 or 3 ounces of fiber. In the eighties of the 

 last century, Hawaii exported about 200,000 pounds of pulu 



