July i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
25 
THE ECONOMIC USES OP LEAVES. 
Of the three divisions of Nature’s products, man 
is most chiefly indebted to the vegetable kingdom, 
whether for his food, medicine, or domestic comforts. 
Every part of plants and trees is more or less utilised 
by savage and civilised men, and a common categoiy 
might be furnished by the various uses of the separate 
parts — the roots, stenns, sap, bark, fruit and seeds, 
and leaves. If we take the last-named, the foliage, 
apparently the most insignificant part of the plant, 
how dependent are we on these for food, clothing, 
medicine, dyes, stains, and Various comforts. 
The miscellaneous application of leaves for different 
purposes as domestic appliances, and for manufac- 
turing uses, of themselves, would furni.sh a long list ; 
some few of these we may pass under notice, because 
their adaptability and usefulness are mainly confined 
to tropical countries. It is true that some leaves have 
been utilised by the papermaker, as in those of the 
dwarf Palm, Maize leaves, and others, but this is 
only on a small scale. 
The leaves of many Palms are largely employed for 
making hats. Those best known are Panama hats, 
so named from being shipped from that port. These 
are made from the finely-plaited fibre of the leaves 
of a South American Screw-pine (Oarludovica palmati). 
These hats are much prized for wear in the Tropics, 
being light and flexible, and can be washed and 
bleached repeatedly. The tree has no stems, the 
leaves have long slender petioles, springing from the 
ground; they are some 2 feet long, fanshaped, and 
four-parted, each segment being again ten-cleft, so 
that when folded in venation, each segment on its 
own rib, there are eighty layers in a young leaf. The 
tree occurs only on the slopes of the Andes. About 
200,000 dozens of these hats are made in Ecuador 
and different States of South America. These hats 
are distinguished from all others by consisting only 
of a single piece, and by their lightness and flexi- 
bility they may be rolled up and put in the pocket 
without injury. In the rainy season they are apt to 
get black, but by washing with soap and water, 
besmearing them with lime-juice, or any other acid, 
and exposing them to the sun, their whiteness is easily 
restored. The plaiting of the hats is very tedious and 
troublesome; the coarse ones may be finished in two 
or three days, but the fine ones take as many months 
to plait. It commences at the crown, and finishes at 
the brim. The hats are made on a block, which is 
placed upon the knees, and requires to be constantly 
pressed with the breast. The hats vary in price, ac- 
cording to fineness and quality, from 20s, to as many 
pounds. . . . 
The unexpanded fronds of Livistonia australis, pre- 
pared by being immersed in boiling water, are dried, 
and the fibre thus obtained is much valued for the 
manufacture of hats in Australia, which much resemble 
the celebrated Panama hats. 
The rough leaves of the Chumico (Ouratella ameri- 
cana) and of Davilla lucida are used for cleaning iron, 
and polishing and scouring wood, Ouratella alata is 
used in the West Indies for polishing bows, sabres, 
&c. ; and C. sambaiba in Brazil — indeed, they serve 
all the purposes of sand-paper to the Indians for polish- 
ing their blow-pipes and war clubs. The leaves of 
Oeltis orientalis are used for polishing horns in the 
East Indies. 
The foli.ago of Ouiacum officinale is very detersive, 
and is frequently used in the West Indies to scour 
and whiten floors, which it is said to do better than 
soap. 
Leaves sown together are much used in India as 
substitutes for the plates and dishes of more civilised 
life. It is not always poverty that leads natives to 
use them in preference to metsl or porcelain articles, 
as caste or custom has often some influence in the 
matter. The leaves principally used are those of the 
Egyptian Lotus (Nelumbium speciosum), Banhinia 
species, Semecarpus anaoardium, Butea frondosa ; those 
of the Banyan (Ficus bengalonsis), by Brahmins, and 
the Plantain-leaf (Musa paradisaiaca). 
The leaves of Bauhinia Vablii ate used iu the cou- 
4 
struction of the curious, rude leaf-bellows in Sikkim 
with which the natives of the hills smelt iron. These 
eaves, when sown together, are used as plates, cups, 
rough tablecloths, rain-hats and caps. The leaves are 
heart-shaped, and above a toot in breadth, and the 
same in length. Sewn together with twigs, they also 
serve for baskets for holding pepper, turmeric, and 
ginger, and are likewise used for thatching. 
Under the name of “Ohattahs,” a kind of umbrella- 
hat or sun-shade is made in the East of the leaves 
of the Licuala peltata and the Talipot Palm, or a 
Plantain leaf. These Chattah hats are much worn by 
the ploughmen, cowkeeprs, and coolies of Bengal and 
Assam. 
The large fan-shaped leaves of the Talipot Palm 
(Oorypha flabelliformis) are like those of the Pal- 
myra Palm, carried over the heads of people of rank 
as an umbrella, and are also used for making books, 
and for various domestic purposes. The leaves are 
also cut up into neat bracelets, worn by Santal girls 
in India. Those of Vanda Roxburghii, split, are 
also worn by them as anklets. Those of another 
species, Borassus mthiopicus, occur as much as 12 
feet across ; they serve also for the manufacture of 
baskets, mats, ropes, and sieves. The leaves of Nipa 
fruticans attain a height of 15 to 20 feet, presenting 
a very handsome appearance, resembling the fronds 
of huge Ferns. This graceful Eastern Palm is utilised 
in various ways, the principal being in the manu- 
facture of thatching for house-roofs, in the Bast 
called “ Ataps.” This manufacture is quite an industry 
of itself, and affords employment to many natives, 
chiefly women, the men simply bringing cargoes of the 
fronds to the women, to be stitched with split rattans, 
and made up. Atap roofs are the best adapted for 
these climates, for while the winds are never strong 
enough to blow them away, they afford the coolest 
protection against the sun of any kind of roofing konwn. 
The leaves of the Palmyra Palm (Borassus flabelli- 
formis) were formerly used like paper, to write books 
on, and to this day they are applied to this purpose in 
Orissa, Southern India, and Oeylon, where an iron 
style is employed to write upon them ; in certain parts 
of Bengal young children use them to write the 
alphabet lessons on. They are largely employed for 
making pans, bags, winnows, hats, umbrellas, and for 
thatching, &c. The leaf takes a dye well, and is worked 
up in Madras into pretty coloured patterns in baskets 
and mats/ 
The slips of Talipot and other Palm leaves are 
coming into European commerce for the manufacture 
of ornamental braids, and in the construction of straw, 
or Leghorn bats. The fibre obtained from the base of 
the leaves of the Chusan Palm (Ohamserops Fortune!) 
is used by the Chinese for making hats and coarse 
clothing. The sale of Palm leaves for decorative pur- 
poses in the towns of Elche and Alicante in Spain, 
produces a considerable income to the towns. 
Kadjan mats, manufactured out of Nipa leaves, are 
indispensable for travelling purposes ; packed up in the 
smallest compass when not required, each mat is 
capable of affording sufficient cover at night for two 
or three persons, either in boat or forest journeys. 
They also form, almost exclusively, the material for 
side-walls and divisions within houses. The young leaf 
unfolded and dried, under the name of Roko, forms 
the favourite covering for cigarettes in the Malayas 
Peninsula in preference to paper. 
The large leaves of the Teak tree (Tectona grandis) 
are used for plates, for packing, and for thatching. 
The leaves of Oordia myxa are employed as plates 
in Pegu, and to cover Burmese cheroots. In Bangalore 
the leaves of Oanna indica are used by the natives in 
lien of plates, to serve their Ragi or Millet puddings 
and other dishes on. 
The leaves of the Papaw tree (Carica papaya) are 
employed by the negroes in washing linen, as a substi- 
tute for soap. They have also the property of render- 
ing meat wrapped in them tender, owing to the alkaloid 
papain which they contain, and which acts as a solvent. 
For cordage and other textile purposes, numberless 
leaves are used, and they serve very generally for pack, 
ing and wrapping up small parcels in India 
