Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/235

Rh fully appreciated throughout the civilized world. The more extensive cultivation of the cotton tree in the Philippine Islands is greatly to be desired, as the development of this industry will add another valuable commercial fiber to the list of our exported products.

One of the most widely known of all Philippine objects is the nipa house, or 'shack.' The material used for the construction of this house is the fibrous leaf of the nipa palm. This palm grows along the shores and in the deltas of rivers. Its leaf, consisting of a long

midrib bearing a large number of slender leaflets, is similar in structure and appearance to the leaf of the cocoanut. When the plant is fully grown the leaves are cut and the leaflets stripped from the stem. These leaflets are bent over a piece of bamboo, sewed together with fine strips of rattan, and thus made into small mats or shingles. The nipa mats are laid on the sides and roofs of houses in the same manner as shingles, and are fastened down with strips of bamboo. A house built of this material can be constructed in a few days and, under ordinary conditions, will last from five to seven years. It is cheap, cool and in every way suited to the climatic conditions of the country.

The nipa palm has several other uses. Its fruit is edible and the