The Oaks 



cuts at top and bottom are made, and the two rectangular plates 

 of bark, each covering one-half of the whole trunk, are attached 

 to it only by the alburnum, or "mother bark." It is a delicate 

 matter to get the cork off and yet leave this under layer uninjured. 

 Cork never grows again on spots that are bruised. Very carefully 

 the wedge-shaped handle of the hatchet creeps along the edge of 

 the plate and lifts it gradually off. The skill and patience required 

 to do this must challenge our admiration. The harvest time 

 comes in July or August. The curved plates of cork are scraped 

 smooth, heated and flattened for transportation. 



The flowering period of cork oaks is practically continuous 

 in the warmer sections of Portugal. The acorns are annual from 

 the early flowers, but the later ones are carried over, ripening in 

 the second season. There are no less than three distinct crops of 

 acorns, as the farmer folk well know. The fattening of hogs 

 depends largely upon these acorns. There seems to be no distinct 

 line drawn between annual and biennial cork oaks. 



There is only one tree in the world whose bark ranks commer- 

 cially with the cork oak, and it takes second place. It is the 

 Cinchona, or Peruvian-bark tree, which is the source of quinine 

 and related drugs. 



Exotic Oaks in American Gardens. — The English oak 

 (Quercus Robur) is the only oak native to the British Isles. It is 

 the patriarch of the forest, noblest in any company of trees, 

 fostered in its youth, cherished and revered in its old age, depended 

 upon in its prime for its valuable products. The Briton to-day 

 is as fervent a tree worshipper as his Druid ancestors were, but 

 his love for the oak is stripped of superstition and tempered by 

 intelligence. He is a practical man, and while he cherishes the 

 gnarled oaks that adorn his private grounds and public parks, he 

 has his oak forests for timber as his grain fields for bread. Sense 

 and sentiment are both strong in him, but there is a proper 

 balance between them. 



The English oak is by no means confined to England. It 

 is found all over Europe, where in earlier times it formed extensi\e 

 forests. It is known in two forms, sessili flora and pediinadaia, 

 varieties dependent upon the absence or presence of stalks of 

 flower and fruit. With age these trees increase in breadth, 

 more than in height, grow stout in trunk and. limb, and the 

 branches become extravagantly gnarled and twisted. The 



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