192 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



annually. At present there is no industry in connection 

 with this material. The pulu fiber was obtained chiefly from 

 Cibotium menziesii, C. chamissoi, and C. glaucum. 



Rattan is the name applied to climbing palms of numerous 

 species belonging to the genus Calamus, especially C. rotang. 

 These palms attain great length up to 300 to 400 feet, espe- 

 cially in India and China. The slender canes are used by 

 the natives in making ladders, foot bridges, utensils, hats, and 

 for other purposes. In Europe and the United States, rattan, 

 however, is chiefly used for furniture, baskets, umbrellas, 

 walking sticks, as a substitute for whalebone, and in numerous 

 other ways. 



Bamboo (Bambusa arundinacea) of India, East Indies, 

 China, Algeria, and generally distributed throughout the Trop- 

 ics is a slender tree 60 to 80 feet high, propagated by shoots 

 and stem cuttings. There are thousands of acres covered with 

 this species in a wild condition and it is also widely cultivated. 

 Bamboo shoots i or 2 years old are much used as paper stock. 

 For this purpose the stems are split and macerated in water 

 7 to 10 days. This material forms the chief paper stock in 

 China. Bamboo is also used in China, Japan, Java, Sumatra, 

 and elsewhere for every conceivable purpose for sails, 

 houses, furniture, mats, screens, utensils of all kinds, and 

 even coarse underclothing and pipes. Various other species 

 of bamboo are also useful but are of less commercial im- 

 portance than the species just mentioned. 



Sponge cucumber (Luff a agyptiaca) , a climbing cucurbit 

 vine widely distributed in the Tropics, is used in India as a 

 vegetable. When, however, the pulp is retted away in water, 

 a fibrous interlacing network is left, suitable for use as a 

 sponge and commonly called vegetable sponge. The plant is 

 cultivated for this purpose, chiefly in Japan, whence 1,000,000 

 vegetable sponges were formerly exported annually. The 

 industry is of much less importance at present. 



