THE CORK-TREE. I53 



expired. The inner bark, or under coat, it 

 does not spare at any time. If forcibly taken, 

 the tree dies." 



" Indeed," said Amelia, " I think it is very 

 good to give away its clothing as it does." 



" It appears," said Mr. Longhurst, " that 

 it relieves and improves the tree, to take away 

 this dead spongy covering, which has ceased, 

 like the outside bark of most other trees, to 

 perform any of the offices of vegetation. When 

 thus treated, a cork oak is supposed to live 

 about a century and a half. 



" The quantity of this substance imported 

 into Great Britain, in a year, is prodigious, 

 —I believe, about two thousand five hundred 

 tons ! One province in Spain, Catalonia, gains 

 250,000/. annually by the trade. When strip, 

 ped from the tree, it is slightly charred, or 

 burned, on the outside, to contract the pores ; 



