354 pliny's natural history. [Book XVI. 



odour, as we have already 91 stated, when speaking of the 

 perfumes. 



The cork is but a very small tree, and its acorn is of the 

 very worst 92 quality, and rarely to be found as well: the 

 bark 93 is its only useful product, being remarkably thick, and 

 if removed it will grow again. When straitened out, it has 

 been known to form planks as much as ten feet square. This 

 substance is employed more particularly attached as a buoy 

 to the ropes 94 of ships' anchors and the drag-nets of fishermen. 

 It is employed also for the bungs of casks and as a material 

 for the winter shoes 95 of females ; for which reason the Greeks 

 not inappropriately call them 96 " the bark of a tree." 



There are some writers who speak of it as the female of the 

 holm oak; and in the countries where the holm does not 

 grow, they substitute for it the wood of the cork-tree^ more 

 particularly in cartwrights' work, in the vicinity of Elis and 

 LacedaBinon for instance. The cork-tree does not grow through- 

 out the whole of Italy, and in no 97 part whatever of Gaul. 



CHAP. 14. (9.) — TREES OF WHICH THE BARK IS USED. 



The bark also of the beech, the lime, the fir, and the pitch- 

 tree is extensively used by the peasantry. Panniers and 

 baskets are made of it, as also the large flat hampers which 

 are employed for the carriage of corn and grapes : roofs of 



91 B. xii. c. 50. 



92 On the contrary, Fee says, tlie acorn of the Quercus suber is of a sweet 

 and agreeable flavour, and is'much sought as a food for pigs. The hams 

 of Bayonne are said to owe their high reputation to the acorns of the cork- 

 tree 



93 The word " cork" is clearly derived from the Latin " cortex," " bark " 

 See Beckmann's History of Inventions, V. i.p. 320, et scq., Bohris Edition, 

 for a very interesting account of this tree. 



u This passage, the meaning of which is so obvious, is discussed at some 

 length by Beckmann, Vol. i. pp. 321, 322. 



95 It is still employed for making soles which are impervious to the wet. 



96 It is doubtful whether this name was given to the shoes, or the fe- 

 males who wore them, and we have therefore preserved the doubt, in the 

 ambiguous " them." Beckmann also discusses this passage, p. 321. He 

 informs us, p. 322, that the E,oman ladies who wished to appear taller than 

 they really were, were in the habit of putting plenty of cork under their 

 soles. 



97 At the present day, it grows in the greatest abundance hi France, tbe 

 Landes more particularly. 



