CORK-WOOD, 171 



buoyant in water than any other ligneous substance, 

 its specific gravity being one-fourth that of water. 

 It is readily inflammable, burning with a large yellow 

 flame, which however soon dies away, leaving 

 behind a bulky, soft, pulverulent charcoal. 



The application of the bark of the cork-tree to 

 useful purposes was practised by the Greeks and 

 Romans. By the former it was called Phellos, by 

 the latter Suber. Theophrastus and Pliny describe 

 it under those respective names, and from the account 

 of the latter there is little doubt that the Romans 

 availed themselves of its peculiar properties in a 

 manner similar to that in which it is applied at the 

 present day. Fishermen, taking advantage of its 

 buoyancy, then made floats to their nets with cork ; 

 this substance was likewise employed as anchor- 

 buoys, while we learn from more than one Roman 

 writer that the unpractised swimmer gladly derived 

 support from the floating cork. 



Although Pliny expressly states that it was used 

 to stop vessels of every kind, this was not perhaps 

 a very common application, or otherwise, as Beck- 

 mann justly observes, " cork-stoppers would have 

 been oftener mentioned by the authors who have 

 written on agriculture and cookery, and also in the 

 works of the ancient poets. We every where find 

 directions given to close up wine casks and other 

 vessels with pitch, clay, gypsum, or potter's earth, 

 or to fill the upper part of the vessel with oil or 

 honey, in order to exclude the air from those liquors 

 which it was wished to preserve. In the passages 

 therefore already quoted, where cork is named, 

 mention is made also of pitching. The reason of 

 this, I believe to be, that the ancients used for their 

 wine large earthen vessels with wide mouths, which 

 could not be stopped sufficiently close by means of 

 cork*." We may observe, that in the amphorae, 

 * Beckmann's History of Inventions, vol. ii, p, 116. 



