CORIP'PUS, FLAVIUS CRESCONIUS, a native of Africa, supposed to have lived in the 6th c.; author of a panegyric on Justin the younger, Byzantine emperor from 565 to 578 A.D. Corippus was also the author of Johannis, a poem celebrating the exploits of a proconsul of that name in Africa in Justinian's time.
CORK (Span. coreko, from Lat. cortex) is the unusually developed epiphlceum (see BARK) of the bark of the cork-tree or CORK-OAK (quercus suber), the alcornoque of the Spaniards, a species of oak (q.v.), a native of the s. of Europe and n. of Africa. Spain and Portugal chiefly supply the world with C., and in these countries the tree is often planted for the sake of the cork. The cork-tree is not of great size, generally 20 to 40 ft. high, much branched, with ovate-oblong evergreen leaves, which are sometimes entire and sometimes sharply serrated. The acorns are eatable, and resemble chestnuts in taste. The bark in trees or branches from three to five years old acquires a fungous appearance, new layers of cellular tissue being formed, and the outer parts cracking from distension, until they are finally thrown off in large flakes, when a new formation of the same kind takes place. C. intended for the market is generally stripped off a year or two before it would natu rally come away, and the process is repeated at intervals of six or eight years. The bark of young trees and branches is either useless or of very inferior quality; it is only after the third peeling that good C. is produced. The removal of the C., being not the removal of the whole bark, but only of external layers of spongy cellular tissue, all or greater part of which has ceased to have any true vitality, and has become an incum brance to the tree, is so far from being injurious, that, when done with proper care, it rather promotes the health of the tree, which continues to yield crops of C. for almost
150 years. In stripping off the C., longitudinal and transverse incisions are made to the proper depth, and each piece is then cut away from the tree by a curved knife with two handles. The pieces are soaked in water, pressed flat, dried, and superficially charred, to remove decayed parts and conceal blemishes, before they are packed in bales for the market. Besides the use of C. for stopping bottles, casks, etc., it is much used, on account of its lightness, for floats of nets, swimming-belts, etc.; and on accountlot its impermeability to water, and its being a slow conductor of heat, inner soles of are made of it. All these uses are mentioned by Pliny; but the general employment:of corks for glass bottles appears to date only from the 15th century. The Spanish black used by painters is made by burning C. in close vessels, and the parings of C. are care2 fully kept by cork cutters for this purpose. There are many other applications oft valuable substance in the arts, which cannot here be detailed.
The C. tree is occasionally planted in the s. of England, but the climate is not sufficiently warm.
The wood of some trees possesses the cellular sponginess, lightness, and elasticity of C. in such a degree as to be sometimes substituted for it in many of its uses, as that of the anon patastris (corkwood, or alligator apple) in the West Indies, etc.