CHAP. cv. CORYLA'CE^. QUF'RCUS. 



1915 



diatcly under the main branches, and another at a few inches above the sur- 

 face of the ground. The portion of bark intervening between the two cuts is 

 then split down in three or four places ; care being taken, both in making the 

 circular cuts, and also the longitudinal ones, not to penetrate the inner bark. 

 This operation is commonly performed in July, or in the beginning of August, 

 when the second sap flows plentifully. The tree is now left for 8 or 10 years, 

 when it is again disbarked as before ; but the bark has not even now attained 

 the desired perfection for the manufacture of corks; and, therefore, it is sold to 

 the fishermen for their nets, and for different other inferior uses. At the end 

 of 8 or 10 years more, a third disbarking takes place, when the cork is found 

 to have the requisite thickness and quality. From this time, while the tree 

 exists, which, according to Bosc, may be two or three centuries, and, according 

 to Du Hamel and Poiret, 150 years or more, its disbarking takes 

 place regularly every 8, 9, or 10 years; the quality of the bark im- 

 proving with the increasing age of the tree, which is not in the 

 slightest degree injured by its removal. (Nouv. Du Hamel y v\\. p. 188.; 

 and Poirefs Hist. Phil, des Phntcs, vii. p. 419.) The instrument by 

 which the bark is cut and separated from the tree is a sort of axe 

 {fig. 1799.), the handle of which Is flattened into a wedge-like shape 

 at the extremity; and this serves to raise the bark after it has been 

 cut : in short, the instrument is not unlike that used in Britain for 

 taking the bark off the common oak. The cork, when first removed 

 from the tree, is in laminae, more or less curved, according to their 

 breadth, and the diameter of the tree from which they have been, 

 taken. To make them lose this curved form, after being scraped 

 on the outer surface to remove the coarser parts of the epidermis, 1<9y 

 and any epiphytes or other extraneous substances, they are held over a 

 blazing fire till the surface becomes scorched; after which they are laid 

 flat on the ground, and kept in that position for some time by large stones. 

 This gives them a set, or form, which they retain ever afterwards ; and thus 

 they become in a fitter state, not only for packing and transportation, but for 

 being manufactured. The slight charring which the scorching produces has 

 the effect of closing the pores of the cork, and giving it what the cork-cutters 

 call nerve. The best cork is not less than 1 in. in thickness : it is supple, 

 elastic, neither woody nor porous, and of a reddish colour. Yellow cork is 

 considered of inferior quality ; and white cork, which has not been charred 

 on the surface, as the worst. The duty on manufactured cork, M'Culloch 

 tells us, is prohibitory ; and on the raw material it is no less than 8/. a ton. 

 The average annual importation is from 40,000 cwt. to 45,000 cwt. ; and the 

 price, including duty, is from 207. to 70/. per ton. It is imported from the 

 south of France, Italy, and Barbary, as well as Spain ; but Spanish cork is 

 the best, and fetches the highest prices. If the cork which is removed from 

 trees at the first and second disbarkings were admitted duty free, it would be 

 found of great use in lining the walls and roofs of cottages, and for covering 

 their floors, and various other uses, which would contribute much to the com- 

 fort of the poorer classes, independently of lining the summer and fishing 

 houses of the rich, as already suggested. 



The tree attains as large a size in Britain as it does in Spain, and might 

 probably produce cork for the above purposes, if it were fairly tried, in the 

 warmest parts of England. Michaux strongly recommends its introduction 

 into the United States, observing that it could not fail to thrive wherever 

 Q. virens exists ; as, for example, on the southern coast, and its adjacent 

 islands. Captain S. E. Cook laments the destruction of the cork trees in 

 Spain, as Bosc does their neglect in France. A contract, Captain Cook 

 observes (writing in 1834), has lately been made for the extraction of a quan- 

 tity of the finest bark from the Sierra di Morena, in the neighbourhood of 

 Seville ; and the contractors were compelled to take the inner bark as well 

 as the outer, the stripping off of which is known to kill the tree. The inner 

 bark, being of no use but for tanning, was found an incumbrance to the con- 



