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.