[972] What is here observed in regard to the pores of cork has been
stated, in general, by Lucretius, vi. 5984.
[973] Duhamel, Traité des Arbres et Arbustes, Tozzetti, Viaggi, iv. p.
278.
[974] [In MacCulloch’s Dictionary the word _every_ is changed into
_for_, and the author then proceeds to observe, that “This erroneous
statement having been copied into the article Cork in Rees’ Cyclopædia,
has thence been transplanted into a number of other works!” The
mistake, however, is wrongly attributed to Beckmann.]
[975] Histor. Plantar. lib. iii. cap. 16. He repeats the same thing
lib. iv. cap. 18, where he remarks as an exception, that the cork-tree
does not die after it has lost its bark, but becomes more vigorous. In
the southern parts of France the cork-trees are barked every eight,
nine or ten years.
[976] Lib. iii. cap. 4. This difficulty the commentators have
endeavoured to remove by reading here φελλόδρυς instead of the two
words φελλὸς and δρῦς which are separated; and indeed φελλόδρυς
occurs in other parts of the same work among the evergreens, lib. i.
cap. 15.
[977] Clusius in Rar. Plantar. Histor. lib. i. cap. 14, describes
this tree as he found it without leaves in the month of April in the
Pyrenees near Bayonne. Theophrastus, p. 234, says, “The cork-tree,
φελλὸς, which drops its leaves γίνεται ἐν Τυῤῥηνίᾳ:” but the Aldine
manuscript and that of Basle have Πυῤῥηνίᾳ. The latter reading is
condemned by Robert Constant and others: but though the cork-tree
is indeed indigenous in Tyrrhenia or Etruria, I see no reason why
Πυῤῥηνίᾳ should not be retained, as it is equally certain that
the tree grows in the Pyrenees, and that it there loses its leaves
according to the observation of Clusius. If, on the other hand, we
read Τυῤῥηνίᾳ, this is opposed by the experience of Theophrastus;
for in Italy, as well as in France and Spain, the tree keeps its
leaves the whole winter through. Stapel therefore has preferred the
word Πυῤῥηνίᾳ. Labat, who saw the tree both in the Pyrenees and in
Italy, says that in the former it drops its leaves in winter, and in
the latter preserves them. According to Jaussin (Mémoires sur les
évènemens, arrivés dans l’Isle de Corse. Lausanne, 1759, 8vo, ii. p.
398) it is in Corsica an evergreen; and Carter (Reise von Gibraltar
nach Malaga, Leipsic, 1799, 8vo, p. 190) says that the case is the
same in Spain, but he expressly adds that beyond the Alps it loses its
leaves in autumn.
[978] In his Gardener’s Dictionary. Bauhin, in his Pinax, p. 424,
mentions this species particularly.
[979] Hist. Plant. lib. i. cap. 15.
[980] Lib. xvi. cap. 21.
[981] De Re Rustica, i. cap. 7.
[982] Lib. xvi. cap. 8.
[983] The botanists of the seventeenth century, who paid more attention
to the names of the ancients than those of the present time, say that
the cork-tree is in Greek called also ἴψος, or ἰψὸς, which word is
not to be found in Ernesti’s dictionary. I have found it only once in
Theophrastus, Histor. Plantar. lib. iii. cap. 6, where those plants
are named which blow late. Because Pliny, lib. xvi. cap. 25, says
tardissimo germine suber; ἰpψὸς is considered to be the same as
φελλός. Hesychius however says that ἰψὸς in some authors signifies
ivy.
[984] Our German word _Kork_, as well as the substance itself, came to
us from Spain, where the latter is called _chorcha de alcornoque_. It
is, without doubt, originally derived from _cortex_ of the Latins, who
gave that appellation to cork without any addition. Horace says, Od.
iii. 9, “Tu levior cortice;” and Pliny tells us, “Non infacete Græci
(suberem) corticis arborem appellant.” These last words are quoted by
C. Stephanus in his Prædium Rusticum, p. 578, and Ruellius De Natura
Stirpium, p. 174, and again p. 256, as if the Greeks called the women,
on account of their cork soles, of which I shall speak hereafter,
_cortices arborum_. This gives me reason to conjecture a different
reading in Pliny, and indeed I find in the same edition already quoted,
the words _cortices arborum_. This variation ought to have been
remarked by Hardouin.
[985] Plin. p. 7.
[986] Mosella, 246.
[987] Linnæi Flora Suec. p. 358. Gmelin’s Reise durch Russland, i. p.
138. It is a mistake in Duroi, Harbkescher Baumzucht, ii. p. 141, that
ropes for fishing-nets are prepared from this bark.
[988] Parkinson’s Voyage to the South Seas, 1773, 4to.
[989] De Militia Navali Veterum. Upsaliæ, 1654, 4to, lib. ii. cap. 5.
[990] In Stephens’s Thesaurus he says, “Usus ancoralibus navium; int.
sustinendis, et minuendo pondere ancorarum.”
[991] Pausanias, viii. 12, p. 623, where he speaks of the different
kinds of oak in Arcadia. When any one had the misfortune to fall into
the sea, the cork affixed to the anchor, _ancoralia_, was thrown
overboard, in order that the person in danger might catch hold of it.
This we learn from the account of Lucian (Epist. i. 1, p. 7), when two
men, one of whom had fallen into the sea and another who jumped after
him to afford him assistance, were both saved by these means.
[992] And to conceal contraband goods in them, of which I have seen
instances during my travels.
[993] Xenophon De Tuenda Re Famil. and Clemens Alexand. lib. iii. Pæda.
[994] Plutarchus in Vita Camilli.
[995] De Re Rustica, cap. 120.
[996] Lib. iii. od. 8, 10.
[997] Before cork came to be used for this purpose pitching was more
necessary, and therefore mention of pitch occurs so often in the Roman
writers on agriculture. When the farmer, says Virgil (Georg. i. 275),
has brought his productions to the city, he carries back articles of
every kind, such, for example, as pitch. On such occasions our poets
would have mentioned articles entirely different. Strabo (lib. v. p.
334) also extols Italy, because together with wine it had a sufficiency
of pitch, so that the price of wine was not rendered dearer.
[998] As proofs of this may everywhere be found, it is hardly worth
while to quote them. Columella, xii. 12, teaches the manner of
preparing cement for stopping up wine-casks. The earthen wine-jars
found at Pompeii appear to have had oil poured over them, and to have
had no other care bestowed upon them. In Italy, even at present, large
flasks have no stoppers, but are filled up with oil.
[999] Alexand. ab Alex. Dier. Gen. v. 21, p. 302. When the Romans
went out to the chase, they carried with them some wine in a
laguncula.--Plin. Epist. i. 6. p. 22. I do not know however that these
flasks were of glass; all those I have seen were made of clay or wood.
See Pompa De Instrum. Fundi, cap. 17, in the end of Gesner’s edition of
Scriptores Rei Rust. ii. p. 1187.
[1000] Le Grand d’Aussy, Histoire de la Vie Privée des François, ii. p.
367.
[1001] Petron. Sat. cap. xxxiv. p. 86. In the paintings of Herculaneum
I find many wide-mouthed pitchers, with handles, like decanters, but no
figure that resembles our flasks.
[1002] Aringhi Roma Subterranea. Romæ, 1651. fol. i. p. 502, where may
be seen an account of a flask with a round body and a very long neck.
[1003] Glossarium Novum, i. p. 1182: “le dit Jaquet print un conouffle
de voirre, ou il avoit du vin ... et de fait en but.”
[1004] Grand d’Aussy quotes from Chronique Scandaleuse de Louis XI.
“Des bouteilles de cuyr.” That word however is of German extraction,
though we have received it back from the French somewhat changed,
like many other German things. It is evidently derived from _butte_,
_botte_, _buta_, _buticula_, _buticella_, which occur in the middle
ages. See C. G. Schwarzii Exercitat. de Butigulariis. Altorfii, 1723,
4to, p. 5.
[1005] See his Observations on Petronius, p. 259.
[1006] De Natura Stirpium, p. 256.
[1007] Dendrologia, p. 194.
[1008] Gmelin’s Reise durch Russland, i. p. 138. Pallas, Flora Russica,
i. p. 66.
[1009] Loureiro Flora Cochin-Chin. p. 447.