Muswell Hill bear a considerable resemblance, both in form and size, to the figure of Q. Pseudo-Suber given in the Nouv. Du Hamel, and of which fig. 1801. is a reduced copy. The tree at Muswell Hill has ripened acorns, but not lately, and the character of their cups is forgotten; otherwise we should at once be able to decide to which section it belongs. The trunk is covered with a corky bark, which has exactly the appearance of that of the true cork tree in the same garden; but the cork is only 2 in. or 2 in. in depth, while in the true cork tree it is more than 3 in. deep. Whether this is a variety or a species, it is, at all events, so decidedly distinct in the foliage, and, as the plate in our last Volume will show, forms such a very handsome evergreen tree, that it well merits a place in collections. When we saw the trees (May 5. 1837), both were in full foliage; but we were informed that the variety lost its leaves generally before the other. Our

drawings of the two trees were taken nearly a month afterwards, when they had exactly the appearance shown in our last Volume. In order that the variety may be kept distinct by propagators, we have given it a name among the others, as below.

1 Q. S. 2 latifolium, Sùber latifolium, &c., Bauh. Pin., 424, Du Ham. Arb. 2. p. 291. t. 80., has the leaves rather broader than the species, and either serrated or entire. The tree at Muswell Hill, between 30 ft. and 40 ft. high, figured in our last Volume, we may suppose to be of this entire-leaved subvariety.

Q. S. 3 angustifolium, Sùber angustifolium Bauh. Pin., 424., Du Ham. Arb., 2. p. 291. t. 81.-The portrait in our last Volume of a tree in the Fulham Nursery, 27 ft. high, and of which there is a botanical specimen given in Watson's Dend. Brit., t. 89., and our fig. 1798., may be considered as belonging to this variety.

Q. S. 4 dentatum, the Q. Pseudo-Sùber of Muswell Hill, has the leaves large, and variously dentate, as in fig. 1797.

The tree of

this variety at Muswell Hill, figured in our last Volume, is between 50 ft. and 60 ft. high.

Description, &c. The cork tree bears a general resemblance to the broadleaved kinds of Q. I'lex; of which species some authors consider it only a variety but, when full grown, it forms a much handsomer tree; and its bark alone seems to justify its being

made a species. It would appear to be rather more tender than the ilex; since the severe winter of 1709 killed to the ground the greater part of the cork trees of Provence and Languedoc; and the frost of 1739-40, one of the original trees in the Chelsea Botanic Garden. Like the ilex, it varies exceedingly in the magnitude, form, and margins of its leaves, and also in the size of its fruit. The nut, according to Bosc, is more sweet than that of the ilex, and may be eaten as human food in cases of

necessity. Swine, he says, are exceedingly greedy of these acorns, and get rapidly fat on them, producing a firm and very savoury lard. The Spaniards eat the acorns roasted, in the same manner as they do those of Q. gramúntia, and as we do chestnuts. The outer bark, the great

thickness and elasticity of which is owing to an extraordinary developement of the cellular tissue, forms the cork; which, after the tree is full grown, cracks and separates from it, of its own accord. The inner bark remains attached to the tree, and, when removed in its young state, is only fit for tanning. Both outer and inner bark abound in tannin; and the former contains a peculiar principle called suberine, and an acid called the suberic. The tree is found wild in dry hilly places in the south of France, in Italy, in great part of Spain, and in the north of Africa. In Spain, according to Captain S. E. Cook, it is most abundant in Catalonia and Valencia. The wood of the cork tree, which weighs 84 lb. per cubic foot, is used for the same purposes as that of Q. I'lex; but it is never found of sufficient size to be of much consequence. By far the most important product, however, which this tree yields, is its outer bark. This, which is the cork of

commerce, appears to have been applied to useful purposes, even in the time of the Romans; since Pliny mentions a kind of buckler lined with cork, and that the Roman women lined their shoes with it; the latter being a practice which is common all over the civilised world at the present day. Both Greeks and Romans appear to have used it occasionally for stoppers to vessels, "cadorum obturamentis" (Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. xvi. cap. 8.); but it was not extensively employed for this purpose till the 17th century, when glass bottles, of which no mention is made before the 15th century, began to be generally introduced. (See Beckmann's Hist. of Invent., vol. ii. p. 114—127., Eng. ed.) In modern times, besides the employment of cork for stoppers to bottles, and bungs to vessels of various kinds, and for lining the soles of shoes, and sometimes other articles, it is used by fishermen for supporting their nets, and by anglers for trolling and other kinds of fishing. It is employed in the construction of life-boats, and also for what are called lifejackets, to enable those to float who cannot swim. In Evelyn's time, cork was much used by old persons for linings to the soles of their shoes; whence the German name for it, pantoffelholtz, or slipper-wood. The Venetian dames, Evelyn says, used it for their choppinges, or high-heeled shoes; and "the poor people in Spain lay planks of it by their bedside to tread on, as great persons use Turkey and Persian carpets, to defend them from the floor. Sometimes, also, they line the inside of their houses built of stone with this bark, which renders them very warm, and corrects the moisture of the air." This last use may afford a valuable hint to the constructors of covered seats, water-closets in the open air, summer-houses, or fishing-houses. In Spain, and also in Barbary according to Desfontaines, and in the Canary Isles according to Webb and Berthelot, it is used for making bee-hives. For this purpose, the bark of young trees is chosen, rolled into a cylinder, and made fast by sewing, or by hoops. There are various other uses to which the bark of the cork tree is applied in its organic state; and it is burned in close vessels, to make the powder which is sold in the colour-shops under the name of Spanish black. At the celebrated Cork Convent at Cintra, several articles of furniture are made of this tree, which strangers who visit the convent are requested to lift, in order that surprise may be excited at their extraordinary lightness. The most valuable property of the cork, and that which is almost peculiar to it, is its imperviousness to any common liquid; while, at the same time, it is light and porous, and, consequently, one of the best non-conductors of heat. Add to these properties its compressibility and elasticity, and we have a substance which can scarcely be equalled either in nature or by art. Its non-conducting properties, flexibility, and elasticity render it suitable for lining articles of dress, or the walls or floors of rooms; its lightness, and its imperviousness to fluids, fit it in a superior manner for life-preservers, either in the form of boats, or articles to be attached to the body; and its compressibility, joined to its elasticity, taken in connexion with its imperviousness to liquids and its great durability, render it the best of all known substances for forming stoppers to bottles. For this latter purpose, as Bosc observes, it forms an article of commerce throughout the civilised world. There is nothing peculiar in the culture of the cork tree, except that young trees should be pruned, so as to have a clear stem of 10 ft. or 12 ft. in height, on which the cork is to be afterwards produced.

Mode of detaching and preparing the Cork. It is observed by authors, that the bark of the cork tree which separates from it naturally is of little value compared with that which is removed by art; and the reason, doubtless, is, that in the latter case it has not arrived at that rigid, contracted, and fractured state, which is the natural consequence of its dropping from the tree. When the cork tree has attained the age of about 15 years, according to Du Hamel, or of about 20, according to Bosc, the bark is removed for the first time; but this first bark is found to be cracked, and full of cells and woody portions, and is therefore only fit for burning, or being employed in tanning. The bark is separated by first making a circular cut round the trunk, imme

diately under the main branches, and another at a few inches above the surface of the ground. The portion of bark intervening between the two cuts is then split down in three or four places; care being taken, both in making the circular cuts, and also the longitudinal ones, not to penetrate the inner bark. This operation is commonly performed in July, or in the beginning of August, when the second sap flows plentifully. The tree is now left for 8 or 10 years, when it is again disbarked as before; but the bark has not even now attained the desired perfection for the manufacture of corks; and, therefore, it is sold to the fishermen for their nets, and for different other inferior uses. At the end of 8 or 10 years more, a third disbarking takes place, when the cork is found to have the requisite thickness and quality. From this time, while the tree exists, which, according to Bosc, may be two or three centuries, and, according to Du Hamel and Poiret, 150 years or more, its disbarking takes place regularly every 8, 9, or 10 years; the quality of the bark improving with the increasing age of the tree, which is not in the slightest degree injured by its removal. (Nouv. Du Hamel, vii. p. 188.; and Poiret's Hist. Phil. des Plantes, vii. p. 419.) The instrument by which the bark is cut and separated from the tree is a sort of axe (fig. 1799.), the handle of which is flattened into a wedge-like shape at the extremity; and this serves to raise the bark after it has been cut in short, the instrument is not unlike that used in Britain for taking the bark off the common oak. The cork, when first removed from the tree, is in laminæ, more or less curved, according to their breadth, and the diameter of the tree from which they have been taken. To make them lose this curved form, after being scraped on the outer surface to remove the coarser parts of the epidermis, and any epiphytes or other extraneous substances, they are held over a blazing fire till the surface becomes scorched; after which they are laid flat on the ground, and kept in that position for some time by large stones. This gives them a set, or form, which they retain ever afterwards; and thus they become in a fitter state, not only for packing and transportation, but for being manufactured. The slight charring which the scorching produces has the effect of closing the pores of the cork, and giving it what the cork-cutters call nerve. The best cork is not less than 1 in. in thickness: it is supple, elastic, neither woody nor porous, and of a reddish colour. Yellow cork is considered of inferior quality; and white cork, which has not been charred on the surface, as the worst. The duty on manufactured cork, M'Culloch tells us, is prohibitory; and on the raw material it is no less than 87. a ton. The average annual importation is from 40,000 cwt. to 45,000 cwt.; and the price, including duty, is from 20l. to 70l. per ton. It is imported from the south of France, Italy, and Barbary, as well as Spain; but Spanish cork is the best, and fetches the highest prices. If the cork which is removed from trees at the first and second disbarkings were admitted duty free, it would be found of great use in lining the walls and roofs of cottages, and for covering their floors, and various other uses, which would contribute much to the comfort of the poorer classes, independently of lining the summer and fishing houses of the rich, as already suggested.

1799

The tree attains as large a size in Britain as it does in Spain, and might probably produce cork for the above purposes, if it were fairly tried, in the warmest parts of England. Michaux strongly recommends its introduction into the United States, observing that it could not fail to thrive wherever Q. virens exists; as, for example, on the southern coast, and its adjacent islands. Captain S. E. Cook laments the destruction of the cork trees in Spain, as Bosc does their neglect in France. A contract, Captain Cook observes (writing in 1834), has lately been made for the extraction of a quantity of the finest bark from the Sierra di Morena, in the neighbourhood of Seville; and the contractors were compelled to take the inner bark as well as the outer, the stripping off of which is known to kill the tree. The inner bark, being of no use but for tanning, was found an incumbrance to the con

tractors, who had no demand for it. Thus the government, for a temporary gain, occasioned a national loss of a prodigious number of valuable trees. (Sketches, &c., vol. ii. p. 248.) The oldest cork tree in the neighbourhood of London is in the grounds of the Fulham Palace; one of the handsomest, though a much smaller tree, is that in the Fulham Nursery, of which the engraving in our last Volume is a portrait. In the garden of the London Horticultural Society, the rate of growth may be stated as 6 ft. or 8 ft. in 10 years; but, with extraordinary preparation, it would grow with double that rapidity. The largest cork tree in Britain (perhaps in the world) is one in Devonshire, at Mamhead, about 8 miles from Exeter. In 1834, the circumference of the trunk of this tree, at 1 ft. from the ground, was 12 ft. 6 in. The height of the trunk, before it branched off, was 10 ft., and the total height of the tree about 60 ft. It stands in the middle of the park, quite detached and exposed, at an elevation of about 450 ft. above the level of the sea, in a soil of fine rich red loam, on a substratum of red stone conglomerate. It is only 3 miles distant from the sea, and is exposed to the sea breeze from the east. The head is oval and compact, and its grand massive branches, each of which would form a tree of noble dimensions, are covered with rugged corky bark, resembling richly chased frosted silver, which is finely contrasted with the dark green luxuriant foliage. Near this tree stands another, 50 ft. high, with a trunk 11 ft. 3 in. in circumference. (Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 127.)

In Ireland, in the neighbourhood of Cork, on the estate of Sammerstown there is a cork tree of unknown age, and which is thought by some to have stood there for several centuries. Several generations ago, it must have been a remarkable tree, for the then proprietor, when letting the land on which the tree stands, introduced a clause into the lease, by which the tenant incurred a penalty of 201., if he cut down or injured the tree. Fig. 1800. is a portrait

of this tree, to the scale of 1 in. to 10 ft., which was sent to the Magazine of Natural History in 1828; and the following are the dimensions of the trunk and principal branches:- Girt of the trunk at 3 ft. from the ground, 8 ft. 10 in.; height of the trunk before it divides, 9 feet; girt of each of the two principal branches, 6 ft. 10 in.; girt of the second-rate branches, 5 ft. 4 in.; diameter of the head, 36 ft.; the thickness of the cork, or outer bark, on the trunk, is about 3 in. The height of this tree was not sent to us; but, judging from the drawing, it appears to be between 25 ft. and 30 ft.