into large bags. Hats are produced from it in
the Pacific Islands, those from the Hawaiian group being especially
well known. It is probable that the imitation Panama hats of the
Loochoo Islands are also woven from a material (raffia) prepared from
the common pandan. In the Marshall Islands it is recorded that forty
varieties of this species have been evolved in the course of planting
and cultivation for industrial purposes.

From the information submitted with the specimens received in
the Bureau of Education, it is to be judged that the economic
importance of the common pandan in the Philippines is of but little
consequence. Though widely used, no large or even local industries
are based upon it. A scattering production of hats, mats, and bags is
reported in Abra, Union, Zambales, Mindoro, Bulacan, Rizal, Batangas,
Sorsogon, Iloilo, Antique, Oriental Negros, Cebu, Leyte, and Sorsogon
provinces. Near Badoc, Ilocos Norte, and along the Abra border the
Tinguian people make mats from an upland variety for local trade. In
Balayan, Batangas, the leaves are used for thatching. In Surigao they
are also made into baskets. In most processes the preparation of the
straw consists of cutting the leaves into strips and drying them. In
Zambales, however, it is reported that the leaves are flattened,
pressed, split, and rolled. In Mindoro, they are soaked in water and
dried in the sun before being cut into straw. It is probable that much
better material could be prepared from this pandan if such processes
as are used in the making of sabutan straw and straw from the Majayjay
pandan were followed.

Judging from the results obtained in other countries, it would seem
that if suckers of the common pandan were taken, in the districts in
which it grows, planted, and cultivated, varieties would result which
would be much better adapted for industrial purposes than the parent
stock. Indeed, it is probable that sabutan, the Philippine pandan
of greatest economic importance, is a variety which is the result
of generations of planting, still closely resembling P. tectorius
but differing from it in its leaves, which are thinner, longer,
of finer texture and of greater strength. It is possible also that
sarakat, the economic pandan of the Bangui Peninsula, Ilocos Norte,
is a variety of P. tectorius.

Varieties of the Common Pandan.

Sabutan.

Botanical.--It is a question among botanists whether the pandan known
as sabutan is a vari