632 
Philippine Journal of Science 
1919 
A tree, usually about 10 meters high, glabrous or nearly so; 
leaves ovate to elliptic-ovate, margins usually repand; inflores- 
cences lax, axillary and terminal, 5 to 10 centimeters long; 
flowers white or yellowish-white, small; drupe fleshy, ovoid, 
about 1 centimeter long, yellowish white, the pulp scanty; com- 
mon and widely distributed in the Philippines at low altitudes. 
Cordia myxa bast is wood brovm, and the strands of the 
rope used in the test are from eleven to fifteen strips thick. 
The strips average 3 millimeters wide and 0.10 millimeter thick. 
When dry, rope made of Cordia myxa bast is very low in 
tensile strength and breaking length. Wetting decreases the 
mean tensile strength 19 per cent. Filipinos say that the fiber 
is not suited for use in the wetted condition. Four of the five 
wet, and three of the five dry, specimens failed outside of eye- 
splices. The latter series of tests showed better agreement 
than the former, the maximum variation from the mean tensile 
strength being 15 and 34 per cent, respectively. 
A summary of the tests of this species made in the Bureau 
of Science is given in Table XXXV. 
Table XXXV . — Physical tests of rope made from the bast of Cordia 
myxa. 
[Rope made at Langiden, Abra Province.] 
Mean diameter: 
Millimeters 
Inches 
7.96 
0.31 
Mean perimeter, or girth: 
Millimeters 
Inches 
25 
0.99 
True mean sectional area: 
Square millimeters 
Square inches 
44.5 
0.069 
Ultimate tensile strength (dry) : 
Mean in kilograms 
Maximum in kilograms 
Minimum in kilograms 
Mean in pounds 
Maximum in pounds 
Minim.um in pounds 
144 
162 
122 
318 
357 
269 
Ultimate tensile strength (wet) : 
Mean in kilograms 
Maximum in kilograms 
Minimum in kilograms 
Mean in pounds 
Maximum in pounds 
Minimum in pounds 
117 
157 
101 
257 
345 
222 
