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WILLIS AND GARDINER : BOTANY 
the market, and is exported in large quantity, Tte best 
quality is made in Addu Atoll, where the fibre made is 
longer.* The fibre of Hibiscus tiliaceus, the Diga, and of 
Hernandia peltata, also bread-fruit sometimes, is used for 
ropes and lines and for sails. Cotton is cultivated to a slight 
extent, and a certain amount of cloth is made in Mahlos and 
Addu, and perhaps elsewhere. Several other fibre-yielding 
plants, such as Corchorus, Calotropis, &c., exist in the fiora, 
but we have no information as to their actual use, if any. In 
the southern atolls a great industry is carried on in the 
making of the fine Maldivian mats, of their kind about the 
finest in the world, beautifully woven, in tasteful patterns, 
and dyed with very fast colours, black, white, and brown- 
yellow. The chief source of material is the kuna, Pycreus 
polystachyus, a common sedge in Ceylon, where however it 
does not appear to be utilized. Fimbristylis spathacea is 
also used. These mats were formerly used for sarongs. 
The weaving of cloth in the Maldives may have been derived 
from that of these mats. 
The leaves of Pandanus {q.v,) are used for mat- and 
sail-making. 
Group V.— Drugs. 
The only known plants of the fiora from which drugs are 
recorded as used in the above list are Calotropis, Ricinus, 
Calophyllum, and Rhoeo, but probably many others, e.g,^ 
Croton, Azadirachta, Vitex, are used. “ Internal medicines 
are very little used, being regarded as contrary to the Koran. 
(Allah willed the sickness, perhaps as a punishment for sin, 
and it is useless to strive against it.) There has always been 
a small class of witch doctors (men), who prepare draughts, 
but these are mere decoctions over which a charm has been 
wrought, and not medicines. More definite ideas prevail in 
the southern atolls, particularly Suvadiva, where I have no 
doubt that all the above and many more are used.” — J. S. G. 
* I understood that an especially long nut was grown in Addu for 
this purpose ; I saw some which appeared to be merely selected examples 
of the Khari, but my information would lead me to believe that there is an 
especial variety which gives little oil but excellent coir. — J. S. G. 
