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the spartum or junci, into ropes, and taught it to the Britons—hence to this day old cables and ropes are distinguishedamong British sailors by the name of junk. In the time ofAugustus , hemp was cultivated for the purpose of sail-cloth $and afterwards hempen cordage became common.

CORK. The bark of this tree, the phellus of the Greeksand suber of the Romans, seems to have been applied by theancients to as many purposes as at present, viz.: as floats tothe fishermen’s nets, anchor buoys, soles for shoes, and(according to Pliny ) as stoppers to jars and vessels ; thoughother substances, such as pitch, wax, &c., were generallymade use of for that purpose : it is singular however that glassbottles, which were introduced in the fifteenth century, had nocork-stoppers till near the end of the seventeenth century,when they were first used in the apothecaries’ shops in Ger­ many , and the stoppers of wax, which were more trouble-some and expensive, laid aside.

CORN. It is supposed that in the first ages men lived onthe spontaneous fruit of the earth, as acorns, and the nut ormast produced by the beech. Any attempt to trace the cul-tivation of com must be absurd; for it was known to theEgyptians long before the fabulous accounts of Isis and Ceres.

From the poor state of agriculture in England during theSaxon period, the exportation of corn was prohibited, whilstthe importation of it was freely invited: however, in theseventeenth year of Richard II . an act was passed, permittingthe exportation of corn, on payment of the customary duties;and in 1436, it was directed that exportation should be allowedwhen wheat was under six shillings and eight-pence perquarter; and that the importation should only be permittedwhen the wheat had risen to that price ; and this system, withreference to the value of corn, as compared with that ofspecie, has ever since been acted upon.