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1 Not the white agaric, Fée says, of modern pharmacy; but, as no kind of agaric is found in the oak, it does not seem possible to identify it. See B. xxv. c. 57.
2 It is evident that no fungus would give out phosphoric light; but it may have resulted from old wood in a state of decomposition.
3 It is pretty clear that one of the lichens of the genus usnea is here referred to. Amadue, or German tinder, seems somewhat similar.
4 B. xii. c. 50.
5 On the contrary, Fée says, the acorn of the Quercus suber is of a sweet and agreeable flavour, and is much sought as a food for pigs. The hams of Bayonne are said to owe their high reputation to the acorns of the corktree.
6 The word "cork" is clearly derived from the Latin "cortex," "bark" See Beckmann's History of Inventions, V. i. p. 320, et seq., Bolrn's Edition, for a very interesting account of this tree.
7 This passage, the meaning of which is so obvious, is discussed at some length by Beckmann, Vol. i. pp. 321, 322.
8 It is still employed for making soles which are impervious to the wet.
9 It is doubtful whether this name was given to the shoes, or the females who wore them, and we have therefore preserved the doubt, in the ambiguous "them." Beckmann also discusses this passage, p. 321. He informs us, p. 322, that the Roman ladies who wished to appear taller than they really were, were in the habit of putting plenty of cork under their soles.
10 At the present day, it grows in the greatest abundance in France, the Landes more particularly.
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