a Rose-leaf, and shall anon more fully describe, whose bulk is
many millions of times less then the bulk of the small shrub it grows on;
and even that shrub, many millions of times less in bulk then several trees
(that have heretofore grown in _England_, and are this day flourishing in
other hotter Climates, as we are very credibly inform'd) if at least the
pores of this small Vegetable should keep any such proportion to the body
of it, as we have found these pores of other Vegetables to do to their
bulk. But of these pores I have said more elsewhere.

To proceed then, Cork seems to be by the transverse constitution of the
pores, a kind of _Fungus_ or Mushrome, for the pores lie like so many Rays
tending from the center, or pith of the tree, outwards; so that if you cut
off a piece from a board of Cork transversly, to the flat of it, you will,
as it were, split the pores, and they will appear just as they are
express'd in the Figure B of the XI. _Scheme_. But if you shave off a very
thin piece from this board, parallel to the plain of it, you will cut all
the pores transversly, and they will appear almost as they are express'd in
the Figure A, save onely the solid _Interstitia_ will not appear so thick
as they are there represented.

So that Cork seems to suck its nourishment from the subjacent bark of the
Tree immediately, and to be a kind of excrescence, or a substance distinct
from the substances of the entire Tree, something _analogus_ to the
Mushrome, or Moss on other Trees, or to the hairs on Animals. And having
enquir'd into the History of Cork, I find it reckoned as an excrescency of
the bark of a certain Tree, which is distinct from the two barks that lie
within it, which are common also to other trees; That 'tis some time before
the Cork that covers the young and tender sprouts comes to be discernable;
That it cracks, flaws, and cleaves into many great chaps, the bark
underneath remaining entire; That it may be separated and remov'd from the
Tree, and yet the two under-barks (such as are also common to that with
other Trees) not at all injur'd, but rather helped and freed from an
external injury. Thus _Jonstonus_ in _Dendrologia_, speaking _de Subere_,
says, _Arbor est procera, Lignum est robustum, dempto cortice in aquis non
fluitat, Cortice in orbem detracto juvatur, crascescens enim praestringit &
strangulat, intra triennium iterum repletur: Caudex ubi adolescit crassus,
cortex superior densus carnosus, duo