OF FOREST-TREES. 



73 



learned Dr. Plot in bis Natural History of Oxfordshire ; which I only cHAP. 

 mention here, that the variety may be compared by some ingenious per- ^"^^ 

 son thereabouts, as well as the truth of the fatal pras-admonition of Oaks 

 bearing strange leaves : besides, we may note that famous Oak of New- 

 Forest in Hampshire, which puts forth 'its buds about Christmas, but 

 withers again before night ; and which was ordered (by our late King 



This is the finest part, and being mixed with vinegar, goes by the name of Pastel. The same 

 is done with the husks ; but these are but of half the value of the dust. The Kermes of Spain 

 is preferred on the coast of Barbary, on account of its superior goodness. The people of 

 Tunis mix it with that of Tetuan, for dying these scarlet caps so much used in the Levant. 

 TheTunesians export every year above 150,000 dozen of these caps, which yields to the 

 Dey a revenue of 150,000 hard dollars (33,750 per annum for duties ; so that, exclusive of 



the uses of the Kermes in medicine, it appears to be a very valuable branch of commerce. 



In some years it has produced 30000 dollars (5000 /.) to the inhabitanis of Xixona in 

 Spain. The first who has spoken of those insects with any accuracy is Peter Quiqueran, 

 Bishop of Senez, in his book de Laudibus Provincise, 1550. 



13. QUERCUS ( svBEuJ foliis ovato-oblongis indivisis serratis subtus tomentosis, cortice 

 rimoso fungoso. Lin. Sp. Plant. 14-13. Oak with oblong, oval, undivided leaves, sawed and 

 ivoolly on their under side, and a fungous clcjt harlc. Suber latifolium perpetuo virens.— 

 C. B, P. 424. The cork-tree. 



The leaves of this useful species are entire, of an oblong oval, about two inches long, and one 

 and a quarter broad, sawed on their edges, and have a little down on their under sides ; their 

 foot-stalks are very short ; the leaves continue green through the winter till the middle of 

 May, when they generally fall off just before the new leaves come out, so that the trees are 

 very often almost bare for a short time. The acorns are very like those of the common Oak. 

 The exterior bark of this tree is the cork, v/hich is taken off from the trees every eight or ten 

 years: but there is an interior bark which nourishes the trees, so that the stripping off the 

 outer is so far from injuring them, that it rather prolongs their life; for those whose bark are 

 not taken off, seldom last longer than fifty or sixty years in health ; whereas the trees which 

 are barked, every eight or ten years, will live a hundred and fifty years and more. The bark 

 of the young tree is porous and good for little ; however it is necessary to take it off when the 

 trees are twelve or fifteen years old, without which the bark will not be good, and after eight 

 or ten years the bark will be fit to take off again: this second peeling is of little use, but at 

 the third peeling the bark is in perfection, and will continue so many years, the best cork 

 being taken from the old trees. The month of July is the time for stripping off this bark, 

 when the sap flows plentifully ; this operation is performed with an instrument similar to that 

 for disbarking Oak. Of this species there is a variety called the Narrow-leaved Cork Tree. 



14. QUERCUS CriRGiNiANA ) foliis lanceolato-ovatis integerrimis petiolatis semperviren- 

 tibus. Oak nith spear-shaped, oval, entire leaves, rvhich are evergreen, and have foot-stalks.'— 

 Volume I. R 



