Show panama hats panama hats are so named from the circumstance of their being shipped from the port of panama they are in ecuador and the neighboring states the material ased is the fiber of the leaf of the screw pine which is related to the palms it grows only on the slopes of the andes the tree is described as having no trunk tho leaves are on blender stems that spring from the ground thelara The yara about two feet long fan shaped and four parted each of the segments is ten cleft so that when the leaf is folded as in the bud there are eighty layers the fiber of these leaves is finely plaited and each hat consists of a single piece of work the plaiting of the hats is a slow and tiresome process coarse hats may be finished in two or three days but the fine one takes as many months the work is begun at the crown and finished at the brim the bat is made on a block which is placed on the knees and has to be constantly pressed with the breast about dozens of these hats are made every year the price vanes according td fhe firmness of the material and the quality of the work they are at from 5 to youths companion |