NIPAH—PINE-APPLE TRIBE. 37 
ance of its foliage, is generally supposed to be a Palm, though 
stemless, but which, in the nature of its flowers, approaches the 
Screw Pines, is a plant of which the leaves are applied to mat- 
making and thatching. It is a native of the Indian Archipelago, 
which extends northwards to the Mergui River, where it is 
found in perfection, but only a few specimens as far north as 
Moulmain. It flourishes in brackish water, along with the 
Mangrove, and its lower parts are inundated when the tide rises. 
It abounds in saccharine sap, which may be evaporated into an 
excellent sugar, or fermented into a kind of “ Palm wine.” Its 
leaves are those chiefly employed in the Tenasserim provinces 
for covering the roofs of houses, and large quantities are sent 
northwards from Mergui for this purpose. They are also made 
into mats, and no doubt abound in fibre, though this is not 
separated for economic purposes. 
Tut Pine-arrte Trise (Bromeliacee). 
The Pine-apple, or Ananas, is so well known as an object of 
the most careful culture in Europe, on account of its pleasantly 
sweet and aromatic fruit, that we should not expect to find it 
included among cordage plants. But its long and rigid leaves, 
which are thorny at the edges and point, abound in a quantity 
of fine white fibres, which are, in some countries, woven into 
the finest fabrics, netted, or twisted into lines for fishing and 
into ropes possessed of considerable strength. These are said 
not to be injured by constant immersion in water—a property 
which the natives increase by tanning them. Not only the 
cultivated Pine-apple, but others of the genus and family, are 
possessed of similar properties, as the Penguin, or broad-leaved 
wild ananas (Bromelia Penguin), which is common on the rocky 
hills in Jamaica and other West India islands. It is employed 
in making fences to their fields; and its leaves, after being 
steeped in water and beaten with a wooden mallet, yield a 
strong fibre, which is twisted into ropes, and manufactured - 
by the Spaniards into cloth, of which they make hammocks, 
&e. So B. Karatas, or upright-leaved wild ananas, which 
includes the Caraguata of Piso, and is common in South 
America; and the Curratow or Grawatha (B. sagenaria), pro- 
bably the same as the Craute de rede, common on the 
