of it is obtained from Catalonia in Spain. The bark of the Cork-tree, which is an evergreen, is rough and spongy on the trunk and main branches, smooth and gray on the smaller branches, and white and downy on the young shoots. The leaves are of a bright colour, oval-shaped, with indented edges; they are smooth on the upper, and downy on the under side. They grow alternately on the branches, on very rough, though strong footstalks; and, indeed, they differ very little from many forms of the ilex. The acorns of the Cork-tree are longish, smooth, and brown when ripe, and of the size and shape of some of our common acorns, to which they are so much alike, as when mixed together, not to be distinguishable. The Narrow-leaved Cork-tree is only a variety of the common sort. The best cork of commerce is taken from the oldest trees, the bark of the young trees being too porous for use. They are, nevertheless, barked before they are twenty years old; and this first barking is necessary to make way for the succession of a better, it being observable, that, after every stripping, the bark increases in value. The first crop is thin, hard, full of fissures, and consequently of little value. The cork is the bark which the tree pushes outwards, as is common to all trees; but in the Cork-tree, the outer bark is thicker and larger, and in greater quantity, and more easily removed. When removed, the liber, or inner bark, appears below it, and from this the cork is reproduced in the course of a few years. The trees are generally peeled over once in ten years. In the collecting of cork, it is customary to slit it with a knife, at certain distances, in a perpendicular direction from the top of the tree to the bottom; and to make two incisions across, one near the top, and the other near the bottom of the trunk. For the purpose of stripping off the bark, a curved knife, with a handle at each end, is used. Sometimes it is stripped in pieces the whole length, and sometimes in shorter pieces, cross cuts being made at certain intervals. In some instances, the perpendicular and transverse incisions are made, and the cork is left upon the trees, until, by the growth of the new bark beneath, it becomes sufficiently loose to be removed by the hand. After the pieces are detached, they are soaked in water, and when nearly dry are placed over a fire of coals, which blackens their external surface. By the latter operation, they are rendered smooth, and all the smaller blemishes are thereby concealed; the larger holes and cracks are filled up by the introduction of soot and dirt. They are next loaded with weights to make them even, and subsequently are dried and stacked, or packed in bales for exportation. The uses of cork were well known to the ancients, and were nearly the same to which it is applied by us. Its elasticity renders it peculiarly serviceable for the stopping of vessels of different kinds, and thus preventing either the liquids therein contained from running out, or the external air from passing in. The use of cork for stopping glass bottles is generally considered to have been introduced about the fifteenth century. The practice of employing this substance for jackets to assist in swimming, is very ancient; and it has been applied in various ways towards the preservation of life when endangered by shipwreck. The importation of cork in a manufactured state into this country, is virtually prohibited by a very high duty; and the import duty upon it in a rough state is also con siderable, being eight shillings per hundred weight. The price of cork, including the duty, varies according to its quality, from 201. to 70%. per cwt. The Cork-tree is rare in this country; but there is a fine specimen in the garden of the Bishop of London's palace at Fulham. THE CYPERUS PAPYRUS. THE Papyrus Plant, the Cyperus Papyrus,according to Champollion, has ceased to grow in Egypt; [but in this he is evidently mistaken.] The ancient Arabs called it berd; it grew principally in marshy places, and its culture was a source of riches for the inhabitants of the borders of the ancient lakes of Bourlos, and of Menzaleh, or Termis. The Baroness Minutoli says that it is to be met with in the environs of Damietta, and on the banks of the lake Menzaleh. It is, however, exceedingly scarce. M. Savary states, that it is only to be met with about Damietta and the lake Menzaleh, and observes that all travellers who have not visited this part of Egypt, make no mention of the plant. This author quotes from Strabo, who calls it biblos, and says that it is indigenous to Lower Egypt; he describes it very clearly, and alludes to a restriction of its growth to particular places. It grows abundantly in Syracuse, and Captain Smyth has figured it, and described it with great precision. It floats as it grows; the principal root runs horizontally near the surface of the water, and throws out long filaments, which descend perpendicularly downwards, whilst numerous triangular green stems shoot upwards, eight or ten feet, and bear on the crown a fibrous tuft of fine filaments, which, near their extremities, are again subdivided into others, leaving small seedy flowerets. This plant is supposed to have been sent from Egypt by Ptolemy Phila delphus, as a present to Hiero. Paper is supposed to have been made of the yellow pellicle that surrounds the stem near the root; but Captain Smyth was more successful, by following the directions of Pliny, with the cellular substance of the whole stem cut thin, and the slices laid over each other transversely at right angles, and well pressed. The ancients extracted sugar from this plant, and made cordage and canvass of its fibres. It served as a medicine for the sick, as an article of food, and also for fuel. The monopoly of this useful plant by the government of Egypt, alluded to by Strabo, probably occasioned its scarcity. M. de Sacy, quoting from an Arabic writer, whose MS. is in the Imperial Library, states that the Egyptians wrote on the paper of Egypt, and that it was made from a reed called berdi. Joseph is said to have been the first fabricator of this paper. The Greeks wrote upon silk, parchment, and other substances, and also on the paper of Egypt. Pliny gives a very full description of the mode of preparing the paper from the Papyrus plant. He says, the stem of the plant is divided with a kind of needle into thin plates, or, slender pellicles, each of them as large as the plant will admit. These form the elements of which the sheets of paper are composed. The pellicles in the centre are the best, and they diminish in value as they depart from it. As they were separated from the reed, they were extended on a table, and laid across each other at right angles. In this state they were moistened by the water of the Nile, and while wet were put under a press, and afterwards exposed to the rays of the sun. The water of the Nile was said to have a gummy quality, sufficient to make the layers of the plant adhere to each other; but Mr. Bruce has shown, that the plant itself is adequate to this, from the quantity of saccharine matter it contains, and that the water of the Nile does not, in any degree, possess this property. Sometimes, however, perhaps when the plant did not contain a sufficient portion of sugar, a kind of paste made of wheat-flour was used for this purpose. The size of the paper seldom exceeded two feet, and it was frequently much less. Mr. Bruce made paper of the plant, which he saw growing in Egypt and Abyssinia. The plant must formerly have been very abundant, for Cassiodorus speaks of it as forming a forest on the banks of the Nile. "There," says he, "rises to the view this forest without branches, this thicket without leaves, this har vest of the waters, this ornament of the marshes." Prosper Alpinus and Guilandin both saw it about two centuries since, and the latter remarks, that the inferior and succulent part of it was eaten by the common people. The Egyptian paper was manufactured principally at Alexandria, but also at Memphis and other Egyptian cities. At the close of the third century, the traffic in paper was very flourishing, and it continued until the fifth century, for St. Jerome says it was much in use during his time, although a very high impost was put upon it. This impost was abolished by Theodoric, king of Italy, in the sixth century, upon which Cassiodorus wrote a letter, in which he congratulates the whole world on the removal of the impost from an article of traffic so essential to the convenience and improvement of mankind, and to the cultivation and prosperity of the arts, science, and commerce. -PETTIGREW'S History of Mum mies. THE NORWAY SPRUCE-FIR. "IT is no exaggerated praise," (says Gilpin,) "to call a tree the grandest and most beautiful of all the productions of the earth. In the former of these epithets nothing contends with it, for we consider rocks and mountains as part of the earth itself." In giving this praise to trees, as beautiful objects in landscape scenery, our author alludes to those only that have been allowed to remain untouched: unnatural forms at all times displease, and although, at times, a pollard-willow may, by its fantastic form, assist the picturesque appearance of a landscape, yet most other lopped trees are disagreeable objects. Clipped yews, lime-hedges, or trees stripped of their limbs to look like a Maypole, invariably injure the effect of a landscape. But the elegant appearance of these productions of the vegetable world constitutes but a small portion of their value, their beauty being as nothing when compared to the many useful purposes to which they can be applied. The trees so straight and high, The sailing Pine, the Cedar proud and tall, The vine-prop Elm, the Poplar never dry, The builder Oak, sole king of forests all; The Aspin, good for staves; the Cypress, funeral; The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors The warlike Beech; the Ash, for nothing ill; The Norway Spruce-Fir has been known as a British tree for more than three hundred years. It differs from the Scotch Fir in general appearance, as well as in the structure of its leaves and cones. The beautiful feathery appearance " of its foliage is very striking, but the extreme regularity of its form rather detracts from the beauty of a landscape when it is too often repeated; it is easily known by its long pendulous cones, as well as by its formal shape. The Spruce-Fir is found in great abundance in all the Norwegian forests; it is also spread over the whole of the north of Europe and part of Asia, and it occurs on most of the mountainranges of both these quarters of the globe; in favourable situations it attains a great height, as much at times as 150 feet. The Spruce grows more rapidly than any other of the fir-tribes; its wood is extremely tough and strong, and answers well for masts and spars, but it is not so valuable when cut into planks as that of other species. It does not attain the same size in Britain as it does in colder climates, the tree perhaps being weakened by the loss of its sap, which in hot weather is discharged through the bark in considerable quantities. The more protracted season of growth, and the greater difference between the temperature of the day and the night, must have an effect upon it; and judging from the situations which it prefers on the continent, the summer rains of England cannot be over and above favourable. The almost continual day in the Polar countries, while vegetation is active, produces a uniformity of temperature, and a consequent uninterrupted growth day and night, while, in countries further south, the vegetable action is checked every night and renewed again every morning, especially in the early part of the season, when such alternations are most dangerous to it. The Norway Spruce is called by the French the Pitch Spruce, from its yielding the Burgundy Pitch of commerce. To obtain this, parts of the bark are removed in the spring, and the resin exudes in greater or smaller quantities, according to the state of the tree; this is scraped off from time to time. After a sufficient quantity has been collected, it is melted in hot water, and strained through bags to separate the impurities. If the stripes of bark which are removed are narrow, the trees will continue to yield for several years. The timber of the Spruce-Firs which grow on the sides of the Alps, is considered much finer than that which is produced in other situations. Its fibre is so tough, that the inhabitants are in the habit of kindling fires about the trees, for the purpose of burning them down, to save the labour of felling them with the axe. THE SCOTCH FIR. THE Scotch Fir, or Pine, is not peculiar to Scotland, but is common to all the mountain-ranges of Europe; in low damp situations it neverthrives, but delights in the exposed summits of the loftiest rocks, over which the earth is but thinly scattered; there its roots wander afar in the wildest reticulation, whilst its tall, furrowed, and often gracefully-sweeping, red and gray trunk, of enormous circumference, rears aloft its high umbrageous canopy. Sir Walter Scott describes its situation above the rest of the trees of the forest: Aloft, the ash and warrior oak The wanderer's eye could barely view, The Fir was a very great favourite with Gilpin, who considered it, as it really is, to be, under favourable circumstances, a very picturesque object in a landscape: the earnestness with which he defends its character is peculiarly forcible; he says, "It is a hardy plant, and, therefore, put to every servile office. If you wish to screen your house from the south-west wind, plant Scotch Firs, and plant them close and thick. If you want to shelter a nursery of young trees, plant Scotch Firs, and the phrase is, you may afterwards weed them out at your pleasure. This is ignominious. I wish not to rob society of these hardy services from the Scotch Fir, nor do I mean to set it in competition with many trees of the forest, which, in their infant state, it is accustomed to shelter; all I mean is, to rescue it from the disgrace of being thought fit for nothing else, and to establish its character as a picturesque tree. For myself, I admire its foliage, both the colour of its leaf and its mode of growth. Its ramification, too, is irregular and beautiful." The practice of planting this tree in groups is the cause to which its unfavourable character, as a picturesque object, may be attributed, the closeness of growth causing the stems to run upward without lateral branches. The hilly regions of the whole of Great Britain and Ireland were formerly covered with vast forests, a great portion of which consisted of Fir-trees. Of these ancient forests some remains still exist; in Scotland, the relics of the Rannoch forest, on the borders of the counties of Perth, Inverness, and Argyle, are well known; these consist of the roots and a few scattered trees, which are still found in situations of difficult access. This forest appears to have stretched across the country, and to have been connected with the woody districts of the west of Scotland. The Abernethy forest, in Perthshire, still furnishes a considerable quantity of timber. "At one time," we quote Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart., "the demand for it was so trifling, that the Laird of Grant got only twenty pence for what one man could cut and manufacture in a year. In 1730 a branch of the York Buildings Company purchased seven thousand pounds' worth of timber, and by their improved mode of working it, by saw-mills, &c., and their new methods of transporting it in floats to the sea, they introduced the rapid manufacture and removal of it, which afterwards took place throughout the whole of the sylvan districts. About the year 1786 the Duke of Gordon sold his Glenmore forest to an English company for 10,000. This was supposed to be the finest fir-wood in Scotland. Numerous trading vessels, some of them above five hundred tons burden, were built from the timber of this forest, and one frigate, which was called the Glenmore. Many of the trees felled measured eighteen and twenty feet in girth, and there is still preserved at Gordon Castle, a plank nearly six feet in breadth, which was presented to the Duke by the Company. But the Rothiemurchus forest was the most extensive of any in that part of the country; it consisted of about sixteen square miles. Alas! we must, indeed, say, it was, for the high price of timber hastened its destruction. It went on for many years, however, to make large returns to the proprietor, the profit being sometimes 20,000l. a year." Besides the forests we have mentioned, there are still in existence other tracts of land in different parts of Scotland covered with this timber. The attention which has been drawn to the value of the Scotch Fir has been an inducement to proprietors of land, to cause extensive plantations to be formed in suitable spots; but Nature herself |