CORINTHIANS 



1581 



CORK 



voyage about 200 miles by crossing through the 

 canal, but foreign steamships usually take the 

 longer route because of the channel's narrow- 

 ness and the strength of the current. The canal 



CORINTH CANAL, 

 As seen from one of its bridges. 



has at its eastern extremity the town of Isth- 

 mia; at its western, Poseidonia. B.M.W. 



CORINTHIANS, korin'thianz, EPISTLES TO 

 THE, two letters written by the Apostle Paul 

 to the Christian Church in Corinth during A. D. 

 57. The first was written from Ephesus, prob- 

 ably early in the year, and the second is sup- 

 posed to have been written from Macedonia 

 some months later. The first Epistle was 

 caused by dissensions in the Church at Corinth 

 and the continuation of certain heathen prac- 

 tices of some of the Christians. In this Epistle 

 occurs Saint Paul's discourse on love, one of 

 the gems of the world's literature. Another 

 celebrated passage in this Book is the writer's 

 argument in favor of the resurrection of the 

 dead. The second Epistle is supplementary to 

 the first; it encourages the Corinthians to con- 

 tinue in the faith and warns them against the 

 dangers with which they are surrounded. See 

 PAUL; CORINTH. 



CORIOLANUS, koriola'nus, a Roman 

 patrician of the early republic, the hero of a 

 well-known legend of that period. In 491 B. c., 

 during a severe famine, he proposed that no 

 grain should be distributed to the common 

 people unless they gave up their tribunes. This 

 suggestion stirred up such a storm of indigna- 

 tion among the plebeians that Coriolanus was 



banished; he took refuge with the Volscians, 

 the bitterest enemies of his country. Placing 

 himself at the head of the Volscian armies, he 

 led them to the very gates of Rome, refusing 

 to listen to the pleas for peace made by the 

 Roman Senate. Finally his aged mother came 

 into his camp, and mingling her entreaties with 

 her tears, prevailed upon him to spare the city. 

 This story has been immortalized in Shake- 

 speare's drama, Coriolanus. See TRIBUNE. 



CORK, kawrk, the spongy outer layer of bark 

 in a tree known as the cork oak, composed of 

 the thickened walls of cells whose living con- 

 tents have disappeared. Cork is light, strong, 

 durable, compressible and elastic, and neither 

 air nor water can pass through it; it therefore 

 possesses a combination of qualities that makes 

 it one of the most valuable products man has 

 appropriated for his use. 



The Tree. The cork oak is a small evergreen 

 tree which grows most abundantly in Spain and 

 Portugal, from which seventy per cent of the 

 world's supply of the product is obtained. 

 Tunis and Algeria are next in importance, in 

 production, followed by Southern France and 

 Corsica, Italy, Sardinia and Sicily, in practi- 

 cally the order named. The tree has been in- 

 troduced into Southern California and into 

 Mississippi, but the product yielded on Amer- 

 ican soil is of an unsatisfactory quality. The 

 average height of the tree is thirty feet, and 

 its circumference is six feet, but some of the 

 larger specimens grow to be fifteen feet around. 

 It flowers in April or May, and the fruit, which 

 is an acorn, ripens from September to January, 

 falling to the ground as soon as it comes to 

 maturity. The acorns are fed to swine, to 

 whose flesh they give a specially piquant flavor. 

 Cork oak trees live 300 or 400 years. 



Stripping the Bark. The first stripping takes 

 place when the tree is from twepity to twenty- 

 five years old, the first layer removed being a 

 hard outer covering known as "virgin" bark. 

 This, the least valuable part of the plant, is 

 sometimes used as a tanning substance and 

 for making rustic work for conservatories and 

 porches. The second layer is cut off nine or 

 ten years later, and successive strippings occur 

 at the same intervals as long as the tree con- 

 tinues to bear. The best bark is obtained 

 when the tree is from forty to fifty years old. 

 It is from the second stripping that the cork 

 is obtained which is used in making floats for 

 fishing nets; this and the later barkings con- 

 stitute the cork of commerce. 



How the Stripping Is Done. With a long- 



