IMPROVEMENT OF SHAPE OF LEAVES. 



27 



Broadloaf tobacco which have been improved by careful seed selec- 

 tion and breeding the veins are sufficiently wide apart to allow 

 wrappers for cigars of standard size to be cut between the veins. 

 Such wrappers have a very smooth, attractive appearance on cigars, 

 and where they can be cut in this way the waste material from 

 each leaf is exceedingly small. Figure 5 illustrates the superior 

 value of the wide over the narrow form of leaf for cutting wrapjK'rs 

 economicallv. Attention is also called to the character of venation 



Fig. 5.— Diagrams showing the superiority of broad over narrow leaves for cigar-wrapper purposes: A, 

 broad leaf; wrapper cuts numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. B, narrow leaf; wrapper cuts numbered 

 la, 2a, 3a, and 4a. Waste indicated by hatching. Not only do the broad, round leaves yield more 

 cigar wrappers, but on account of the venation and other characters they produce wrappers of 



superior quality. 



in the two leaves shown. It will be observed that the veins extend 

 out almost directly toward the edge of the leaf from the midrib in 

 the case of the w^ide leaf (A), while in the case of the narrow^ leaf 

 (B) the veins run upward, and, consequently, wdien used as wrap- 

 pers injuriously affect the appearance of cigars. 



The variability of the plants in the field in respect to shape of 

 leaf is found upon close observation to be more striking than the 

 variability in many other characters. The variability of strains of 



96 



