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Furetieres says that it comes from the Latin levis, i.e. light, which in Italian became lieve, 

 and in French liege. German, korkeiche, korkbanne. Dutch, korkboom. English, the cork- 

 tree. Italian, suvero. Spanish, alcornoque. Portuguese, sovereiro. 



Uses. The wood of the cork tree is very compact and extremely strong. It's used 

 by wheelwrights and for various kinds of lathe-work. Everyone is familiar with the uses 

 for its bark. It's made into cork stoppers, soles for shoes, floats to support fish nets, life 

 vests for swimmers, etc. According to Duhamel, the bark is only suitable for making 

 corks when the tree is twenty-six to thirty years old. He claims that a cork tree stripped of 

 its bark every eight or ten years can survive another hundred and fifty years. July and 

 August are the preferred months for this procedure. The bark is cut longitudinally at 

 intervals down to the root collar using an axe with a handle that has a wedge at the end. A 

 circular incision then is made at each end of the cuts. The bark is struck to loosen it, and 

 it's lifted off by inserting the handle of the axe between the bark and the wood, taking 

 care to leave behind a few layers of sapwood without which the tree will inevitably die. 

 When this job is done, the cork is divided into strips, its surface is scraped smooth, and 

 it's flamed to contract the pores. Good quality cork is firm, supple, springy and has a 

 reddish color, Cork was known in antiquity and according to Pliny it was used in the 

 same ways. Regrettably we have neglected the cultivation of cork here, but it can't be 

 otherwise as long as the government allows the importation of cork stoppers from abroad. 

 Our growers in the south won't do anything to promote the growth of the trees and 

 augment the amount of their bark. 



Cultivation. The tree is propagated from seeds as is done with other species, but in 

 open ground it does well only in our southern departments. In Paris it must be kept in a 

 conservatory. 



The kermes oak, Quercus cocci fera. Linn., is a small branchy twisted tree. The 

 leaves are oval, small, smooth, shiny, and bordered with spiny teeth that are quite similar 

 to those on holly leaves. 



