sight in the summer months, and plays a very important part in the cork industry, for besides the numerous warehouses for storing and shipping there are factories for the manipulation of cork and its conversion into the many useful forms in which it has proven of value. Before shipping, the bales are opened, the edges of the bark trimmed and the bark then sorted into the various grades of quality and thickness again. The importance of this last mentioned operation cannot be overemphasized, as the whole problem of the successful and economical manufacture of corks center about it. After sorting it is ready to be rebaled for shipment, this generally being done by placing the large, flat pieces called planks or tables, at the bottom of the bales, and above them the small pieces which are covered in turn with larger sections; then the whole mass being subjected to pressure to render it compact, afterward being bound up securely with steel hoops or wires. Each bale carefully marked indicating the grade or quality, loaded directly into ocean-going steamers and shipped to the ports of the world. [19] Mr. Lamey, the author of a study upon cork in Algeria, published some interesting tables in this work regarding the annual increase and the mean thickness of cork. According to him cork-bark should not be removed before it has attained a thickness of 2.032 cm., and the formation of new cork has been well explained by Mr. Mathieu in his “Forestry Flora.” [20] Armstrong Cork Co.’s pamphlet. From this meager description we at least can learn what “corkwood” is, the limited sphere of its growth, the constant care necessary to insure a successful harvest or gathering, the peculiarities of the tree, its longevity and the general mode of preparing the bark for shipment; the narration in no wise doing justice to this most interesting material, in its natural state, for its growing is a fascinating tale in itself; but for the purpose of this writing the foregoing has been deemed sufficient to convey an understanding of it. As we have now seen how this wonderful material grows, its haunts and dwellings, we will look at it more closely and see what it really is, how this particular formation comes about and its peculiarities. BOTANY AND CHEMISTRY