Where is the Tree found?

In Spain, Italy, France, and many other countries.  The true cork is the produce of the broad-leaved tree.

What are its uses?

Cork is employed in various ways, but especially for stopping vessels containing liquids, and, on account of its buoyancy in water, in the construction of life boats.  It is also used in the manufacture of life preservers and cork jackets.  The greatest quantities are brought from Catalonia, in Spain.  The uses of Cork were well known to the ancients.

To what particular use did the Egyptians put it?

They made coffins of it, lined with a resinous composition, which preserved the bodies of the dead uncorrupted.

What is Cochineal?

A drug used by the dyers, for dyeing crimsons and scarlets; and for making carmine, a brilliant red used in painting, and several of the arts.

Is it a plant?

No, it is an insect.  The form of the Cochineal is oval; it is about the size of a small pea, and has six legs armed with claws, and a trunk by which it sucks its nourishment.

What is its habitation?

It breeds in a fruit resembling a pear; the plant which bears it is about five or six feet high; at the top of the fruit grows a red flower, which when full blown, falls upon it; the fruit then appears full of little red insects, having very small wings.  These are the Cochineals.

How are they caught?

By spreading a cloth under the plant, and shaking it with poles, till the insects quit it and fly about, which they cannot do many minutes, but soon tumble down dead into the cloth; where they are left till quite dry.

Does the insect change its color when it is dead?

When the insect flies, it is red; when it is fallen, black; and when first dried, it is greyish; it afterwards changes to a purplish grey, powdered over with a kind of white dust.

From what countries is the Cochineal brought?

From the West Indies, Jamaica, Mexico, and other parts of America.

What are Cloves?

The dried flower-buds of the Clove Tree, anciently a native of the Moluccas; but afterwards transplanted by the Dutch (who traded in them,) to other islands, particularly that of Ternate.  It is now found in most of the East Indian Islands.

Describe the Clove Tree.

It is a large handsome tree of the myrtle kind; its leaves resemble those of the laurel.  Though the Clove Tree is cultivated to a great extent, yet, so easily does the fruit on falling take root, that it thus multiplies itself, in many instances, without the trouble of culture.  The clove when it first begins to appear is white, then green, and at last hard and red; when dried, it turns yellow, and then dark brown.

What are its qualities?

The Clove is the hottest, and most acrid of aromatic substances; one of our most wholesome spices, and of great use in medicine; it also yields an abundance of oil, which is much used by perfumers, and in medicine.