75 
tropics, is made into slippers. It is interesting to note that the 
making of slippers from this fiber was started about 190 
the abundance of C. malaccensis they gave up their cake business 
and turned to the making of slippers. Now almost every house 
in the little town is actively engaged in making these slippers 
lands. 
t n 
ms probable that aie would improve the 
quality of the fiber. Its coarseness in the wild es is the 
principal objection at present to its use by Filipinos. 
arious species of Scirpus, such as S. erectus, S. grossus, S. 
i d 
o 
= 
+ 
Dn 
oO 
common cat-tail, found in abundance in various parts of the 
Islands, but not used to any great extent. 
VINES 
Many vines growing in the tropics develop air-roots high 
above the ground from long, clambering and fleshy stem-struc- 
tures. 
A description of the forest near Puerta Galera, Mindoro, 
where the writer found air-roots in plenty, should prove of 
ai u 
places bird’ s-nest ferns were very abundant and the bark of many 
trees was covered with moss. So humid were the surroundings 
that even the edges of many leaves were covered with fringes 
of m The trees and plants were so close together that only 
a ate ie the light of the sun was able to find its way to the ground 
through the dense mass of foliage. The earth even after a 
