74 



A DISCOURSE 



HOOK II. 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. xvi. c. viii.) 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 wondei* that 

 Carolus Stephanus and Cursius should write so peremptorily that there 

 were none in Italy, where I myself have travelled 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 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 

 decortication thereof, is once in two or three years to strip it in a dry 

 season, otherwise the intercutaneous moisture 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 

 tlie convex part, and so it continues, being cold. 



The uses of Cork are well known amongst us, both at sea and land, 

 for its resisting both water and air ; the fishermen who deal in nets, and 



this operation is necessary, to make way for a better bark to succeed ; it being observable 

 that, after every stripping, the succeeding bark increases in value. They are generally 

 peeled once in ten years, with an instrument for that purpose, and this is so far from 

 injuring the trees, that it is necessary, and contributes to their being healthy ; for without 

 it they thrive but slowly ; nay, in a few years they will begin to decay, and in less than 

 a century, a whole plantation will die of age ; whereas those trees that have been regularly 

 peeled, will last upwards of two hundred years. 



The bark of this tree was formerly used for making bee-hives ; and Varro says, that 

 those which are made of this material are the best : " Optimae fiunt corticese, deterrimje 

 fictiles, quod et frigore hyeme, et aestate calore vehementissime hie commoventur."— 

 Virgil, speaking of providing commodious habitations for his bees, says ; 



Ipsa autem, seu corticibus tibi suta cavitig, 

 Seu lento fuerint alvearia vimine texta, 



Angustos habeant aditus. geokg. ir. 



The bark of the Cork-tree was by the ancients called Cortex, by way of eminence: 

 "Tu cortice levior." And Pliny says, the Greeks not inelegantly called this tree the 

 Bark-tree i " Non infacete Graeci certicis arborem appellant." 



