CHAP, v SYLVA 283 



gratify the curious, I have been induc'd to say some- 

 thing farther of such semper virentia^ as may be made 

 to sort with those of our own, (especially of the next 

 Chapter.) I begin with the 



i . Cork, \suber\ of which there are two sorts (and 

 divers more in the Indies) one of a narrow, or less 

 jagged leaf, and perennial ; the other of a broader, 

 falling in Winter ; grows in the coldest parts of Biscay, 

 in the north of New-England, in the south- West of 

 France, especially the second species, fittest for our 

 climate ; and in all sorts of ground, dry heaths, stony 

 and rocky mountains, so as the roots will run even 

 above the earth, where they have little to cover them; 

 all which considered, methinks we should not despair. 

 We have said where they grow plentifully in France; 

 but by Pliny, Nat. Hist. 1. 16. c.8. it should seem they 

 were since transplanted thither ; for he affirms there 

 were none either there, or in Italy, in his time : But 

 I exceedingly wonder that Carolus Stephanus, and 

 Cursius, should write so peremptorily, that there 

 were none in Italy ; where I my self have travell'd 

 through vast woods of them about Pisa, Aquin, and 

 in divers tracts between Rome, and the kingdom of 

 Naples, and in France. The Spanish cork is a species 

 of the enzina, differing chiefly in the leaf, which is 

 not so prickly ; and in the bark, which is frequently 

 four or five inches thick : The manner of decortica- 

 tion thereof is once in two or three years, to strip it 

 in a dry season ; otherwise, the intercutaneous moist- 

 ure endangers the tree, and therefore a rainy season 

 is very pernicious ; when the bark is off, they unwarp 

 it before the fire, and press it even, and that with 

 weights upon the convex part, and so it continues, 

 being cold. 



