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ORIGIN OF CORK 7
development, it can not be amiss to say a word about Barcelona,
the capital, so to speak, of the cork industry, and
which jnust be ranked today amoAg the great cities of the
world. ^*The Barce^kma distnpt-'(5r Spain would be an amazing
surprise to any one mip^ilTg to it with no better idea of what
to expect. Barc^krfia is tddaj,:,jm enormous city of nearly a
million pomil^tion, extending from the sea toTHe^fDDthills of
the_Byr€mies, filling the plain in between and stretching out
into the valleys and well along the coast.
From a point on Tibidabo some 1,500 feet above the
Mediterranean sea, can be seen an immense metropolis spread
out with the exact regularity of any of our modern cities of
the Middle West. Ofif to one side a splotch by the harbor
faintly marks the old Barcelona of crooked, narrow streets,
but even this is fast giving way to make room for new, wide
thoroughfares that link modern highway and transportation
lines.
Modern office and public buildings, hotels and shops, flats
and apartments, broad avenues and boulevards lined with
trees and <strong>complete</strong>ly equipped with excellent electric tram
and omnibus service, athletic stadiums and open air theatres,
palatial villas and residences, electric trains every few minutes
from the heart of the city out into the country, a subway under
construction, at night the central squares lit up with flashing
Broadway sky signs—there is little indeed to suggest the
Spain of our fancy.
Barcelona began to grow after the International Exposi-
tion of 1888, when new capital gave an immense impetus to
its many industries; and while it is the chief seaport of Spain,
it is as a manufacturing center that it has risen to the position
of one of the great cities of the world.
^5.
—
Characteristics of the <strong>Cork</strong> Oak.—The botanical name
for the cork oak is Quercus suher. "It grows and develops in
ground of little depth, and often quite stony, being seldom
found in calcareous soil, preferring a sandy soil of felspar."*
It ordinarily attains a height of from twenty-five to fifty feet,
but occasionally grows to a height of more than one hundrec
'Consul Schenck's Report, 1890.