Rush Straw.

But one rush straw has been brought to the attention of the Bureau
of Education; it is the Japanese matting rush, Juncus effusus. This
species is distributed over a large part of the globe, being the
candle rush of Europe and the common plant of wet ground in the United
States. In Japan it is made into beautiful mattings, the handsomest
and most costly produced. The pith is also employed for lamp wicks,
and probably the "timsim" imported from China and used in oil lamps
in the Philippines is obtained from this plant. Juncus effusus has no
native name in the Philippines. It is found throughout the Mountain
Province and in the Apo region of Mindanao. It attains a height of
almost 2 meters where soil and moisture conditions are favorable. The
stalk is cylindrical and at the end tapers to a point. It is from 2
to 3 mm. in diameter. The flowers grow in a bunch on the side of the
stalk near the top and are light brown in color. At the present time
this rush is not utilized in the Philippines, though it is probable
that it can be used in the weaving of many articles. If split, a flat
straw is obtained by removing the pith.

EMBROIDERED MAT DESIGNS. [34]

It is better not to decorate a mat at all than to have the design ill
fitting. Design is the pleasing arrangement of all spaces unfilled
as well as filled. Decoration is for beauty wholly. If all the spaces
are not well arranged, the design is not beautiful. If the design is
startling or gaudy in color, it is not beautiful. If the arrangement of
colors is inharmonious, the design is not beautiful. All mats cannot
be in the same proportion and suitable for all designs. Plate LXV,
for instance, shows a long design; it requires a long mat, and would
not look well on a square one.

All mats here considered are about 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch in width of
straw. Some of the designs are used exactly as they are, counting
a straw for a square which represents a straw in the design; the
others are double in size and contain four times as many squares
in the weave as in the design. In such cases twice the count of the
design will always give the right number for the weave.

In circular mats the directions are given in inches. The sizes of
the mats should be taken into consideration, but a variance of a few
inches will not matter if that variance always makes the mat larger
rather than smaller. In these mats more is left to the judgment of
the weaver than in rect