There are a great many large forests in the Philippines, and there are very fine trees in them. The most useful of the plants or trees is the bamboo. I have already told you about it. The cocoanut palm is also a very useful tree. The nuts give food and drink and oil.
[Illustration: A Philippine woman carrying water.]
On one of the islands there is a wonderful plant called the pitcher plant. Its leaves are in the shape of pitchers. Some of the pitchers have lids, and are large enough to hold a pint of water.
In the Philippines they raise coffee, bananas, sugar, tobacco, and cotton. One of their most useful plants is the plant from which they get hemp for making ropes and cords. This plant is called "ab'a-ca" by the people in the Philippines, and its hemp is called Manila hemp.
There is a great deal of rice grown in the Philippines. Rice is the food that most of the people live on.
There are buffaloes in the Philippines. The people use them for riding and for carrying loads. They have also deer, goats, and hogs.
[Illustration: A Buffalo at Work.]
In some parts of the islands they have a strange way of fishing. They fill baskets with a kind of mixture in which they put poison. Then they throw the baskets into the water. The fish become stupid after eating the poison. Very soon they rise to the top of the water, where the people catch them.