MIXED FIBERS 



233 



temporary structures such as those of the Columbian and 

 Pan-American Expositions. The fine fiber is woven by the 

 natives into beautiful fabrics. 



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Fig. 219. — Miinila Hemp Plant {Miisa texlills. Bauaua Family, Musacece). 

 Plant, flowers, and fruit. (Kew Bulletin.) — A tree-like perennial herb 

 from the underground stem of which arise huge leaves whose over- 

 lapping stalks make a trunk 6 m. or more in height, and support not 

 onlj' the immense leaf-blades but the heavy cluster of flowers and 

 fruit: leaves pale beneath: flowers inconspicuous, co\'ered by reddish 

 Ijracts: fruit green, filled with numerous seeds. Native home, Philip- 

 pine Islands. 



The leaves of the pineapple (Fig. Ill) yield a similar fiber 

 of extraordinary strengtli and fineness. From the finest of 



