BY J. H. MAIDEX. 463 



Seas and China, of which the best is Manila (1) tobacco. It is 

 essentially a cigar tobacco in contradistinction to a manufacturing 

 tobacco, having a very decided cigar-tobacco flavour ; the sti-ength 

 of this flavour is remarkable, considering, as you say, and as it 

 bears evidence of, being sun-cured, 



"As a merchantable article it is next to useless, but more than 

 interesting as a specimen, as it is almost certain that where that 

 srew, an article would s;row that would have at least a fair market- 

 able value in England and the Continent." 



There is no doubt whatsoever that New Guinea, in common 

 with some other islands of the Eastern Archipelago, is capable of 

 growing tobacco of high quality. I may cite the Report on the 

 specimens of raw tobacco exhibited by the colony of North Borneo 

 at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, because the climate and 

 soil of Borneo are so very similar to that of New Guinea. The 



(1) East ludian, Manila and Turkish tobaccos are the produce of 

 Nicotiana rustica, Linn. American tobaccos are the produce of N. Tabacum, 

 The leaves of N. Tahncum are tapering oval-hinceolate and sessile, those of 

 N. rustica being ovate, cordate and stalked. Of these two species the 

 former seems much the liardier, and in most countries when it is cultivated 

 to any extent, has become acclimatised, springing up in great profusion, 

 self-sown. The latter form, on the other hand, is rarely found to do this, 

 and is thus met only under cultivation. See Reports on the Colonial and 

 Indian Exhibition, Art. "Tobacco." 



The species of the genus Nkotiana are all indigenous in America, except 

 our N. suaveolens, which is to be found all over Australia. The lamina of 

 the largest leaf of the New Guinea tobacco now under examination has a 

 length of 9 inches, while the petiole is 2 inches long. The average length 

 of the laminre is, however, 7 inches. They are all ovate-lanceolate, rather 

 obtuse and none subcordate, which latter characteristic is mentioned by 

 Asa Gray (Syn : Flora North America) as belonging to N. riistka. The 

 presence of a longish petiole at once excludes this tobacco from N. Tabacum, 

 and of all the species described by Asa Gray it certainly comes nearest to 

 N. rustica. It is not very remote (I speak of the foliage alone) from our 

 N. suaveolens with its spathulate leaves, but in all the specimens of that 

 species I have examined, the lower portion of the leaf tapers far more into 

 the petiole than is the case with any leaf of this New Guinea tobacco. It 

 is to be hoped that Mr. Bevan or some other explorer will procure whole 

 plants of this far-inland tobacco in flower and fruit. 

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