132 PENTANDRIA. MONOGTNIA. 



Northern states. The whole plant is poisonous and nar- 

 cotic, exceptin.^ the oil expressed from its cotyledons, 

 which is innoxious. 



The genus Hiioscyanms appertains principally to the 

 South of Europe, and the East, there is also 1 species in 

 Siberia. 



202. NICOTIANA. i. (Tobacco.) 



Calix urceolatc, 5-clefl. Corolla funnel form, 

 border plaited, 5-cleft. Stamina inclined. Cap- 

 sule 2 to 4-valved, 2-celled. 



Herbaceous or rarely suflTruticose, flowers terminal, ra- 

 cemose or paniculate, seg-ments acute or ohtuse. Capsule 

 in most of the species partly 4-valved. 



SpEciEb-. 1. J\r. Tabaciim. Cultivated. No where de- 

 cidedly indig-enous. Introduced into North America ap- 

 parently by the aborig-ines. Near the confluence of Pid- 

 geon river with the 1 ennessce, and in some other parts 

 of the state of Tennessee, I am assured by the earliest 

 settlers, that Tobacco came up spontaneous around the 

 ruins of the ancient aboriginal stations. The genuine ha- 

 bitat of the JMcotiana Tabaciim, tliough so confidently re- 

 ferred to America, still appears to be involved in obscu- 

 rity; in Europe it wa« first made known about the year 

 1560 by Nicot, a French ambassador, who had received 

 seeds of it from Florida during his residence at Lisbon, 

 and it was in honour of him that the genus acquired its 

 name; about the same time also the Spaniards received it 

 from Tobaco, a province of Yucatan, hence its common 

 name. The learned Savary, however, asserts that the 

 Persians have cultivated Tobacco (now) more than 400 

 years, and that they received it from Egypt. 2. rustica. ^ 

 According to the observations of tlie late Ur B. S. Bar- 

 ton, cultivated and introduced by the indigenes. Still na- 

 turalized near the borders of some of the smaller lakps in 

 the western parts of the state of New York. Cultivated 

 also by the aborigines of the Missisippi, and by some of 

 the tribes on the Missouri. JV. 3. qnadnvalvis, Pursh, 

 Annual; stem low, ei'ect, and diffusely branched; leaves 

 lanceolate, rather short, acute and sessile, sometimes au- 

 riculate at the base; calix campanulate, a little shorter than 

 the tube of the corolla, somewhat inflated, closed, seg- 

 ments acuminate; limb of tlie corolla expanding, nearly 

 fiat, segments acute; capsule roundish, 4-valved. 



Stem 1 to 2 feet high; flowers white, in a scattered pa= 

 nicle, opening about sun-set, calix viscid. 



