NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 97 



as they are brought from Virginia. Almost all the pressed tobacco is defiled 

 with liquorice or molasses, which substances conceal the bad taste of the infe- 

 rior qualities. The method by which the flavor of our plant is imparted to 

 plants which have none of their own is as follows : A quantity of the refuse 

 tobacco is boiled in wine, or more frequently in human urine, until a strong fluid 

 extract is obtained ; to this some salt is added. It is then poured upon the 

 dried leaves of other plants, such as rhubarb, burdock, sunflower, cabbage, or 

 broad-leaved dock, which, after remaining in the fluid a sufficient time to ab- 

 sorb as much of it as they can contain, are hung up to dry and then made into 

 Havanna segars. Cut tobacco, likewise intended for smoking, is mixed with 

 the leaves of stramonium and foxglove and with opium. There is, however, 

 no end to the dishonesties practised by tobacco manufacturers. 



I now proceed to describe the plant as it has come under my observation, 

 premising that I do not believe that the species here noted are any where to be 

 found in a perfectly wild or native state. Mr. Lehman, the last authority on 

 this subject, enumerates twenty-one species. I have seen but four, and one of 

 these looks very much like some other genus. I allude to N. quadrivalvis. The 

 other species of Nicotiana have but two valves in the capsules. The three 

 remaining species, I know from experience, mutually mix together. I omit a de- 

 scription of the genus. 



Nicotiana tabacum. Annual, viscid, branching. Leaves oblong lanceolate, 

 broad, acuminate, most entire, for the most part strictly sessile, at the base 

 more or less decurrent, subamplexicaul. Flowers paniculately corymbose, 

 terminal, with linear lanceolate bractes. Calyx oblong, five-cleft, the divisions 

 lanceolate acute. Corolla infundibuliform, much longer than the calyx, the 

 tube viscid, greenish, the limb pale rosy, spreading, the lobes ovate acute, 

 capsule a little longer than the calyx, stigma transversely sulcate on the top. 



This is the common tobacco of commerce, called by different names, Vir- 

 ginian, Kentucky, Nagadoches, &c. It is not agreeable to smoke, unless weak- 

 ened by washing in water. It is the only kind fit for chewing. Too much care 

 cannot be taken in the operation of curing it, and much of its goodness depends 

 upon the manner in which it has been dried and fermented. The Indians in 

 this country are in the habit of mixing it with the leaves of Rhus glabrum and 

 Laurus Borbonia, or the scraped bark of Cornus sanguinea, all of which improve 

 its taste in a remarkable degree. 



N. fruticosa. Perennial, pubescent, viscid, branching. Leaves lanceolate, 

 acuminate, most entire, sometimes very shortly petiolate, most generally sessile, 

 the lower ones amplexicaul. The inflorescnce the same as of the preceding, 

 stigma subbilobate. 



This is the far-famed tobacco of the Island of Cuba and of all the tropical 

 parts of America. I have been told that it is the species cultivated in the in- 

 terior of Africa. It is probably indigenous to that portion of the globe. An 

 African, from a region in that country far distant from the sea, who was well 

 acquainted with the cultivation of the plant in his own country as well as in 

 this, told me when he first saw this species growiug in Georgia, that it was the 

 kind which grew in his country. He could not well be mistaken, for the leaves 

 of N. tabacum are very wide, whilst on the contrary of the N. fruticosa they are 

 rather narrow. It is from this species that the so-called Havanna segars ought 

 to be made. But it seems to me that very little of it enters into the composition 

 of what we now receive from Cuba. 



N. rustica. Annual, villous, viscid, branching. Leaves petiolate, ovate or 

 roundish obtuse most entire, sometimes more or less cordate, divisions of the 

 calyx short, ovate or roundish. Corolla greenish yellow. Stigma entire. 



From this species, which is nearly as agreeable for smoking as the last, are 

 produced the varieties called Turkish, Chinese, East Indian, Shirazian and 

 Latakia tobacco. It is said to have been imported from America into England 



1859.] 



