N. ORD.—-SOLANACEZ:. 128 
Tribe.—NICOTIANEA. 
GENUS.—NICOTIANA,* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
TAS Ate 
TOBACCO. * 
SYN.—NICOTIANA TABACUM, LINN., NICOTIANA MACROPHYLLA, 
SPRENGEL, LEHM., HYOSCYAMUS PERUVIANUS, GERARD. 
COM. NAMES.—TOBACCO; (FR.) TABAC; (GER.) TABAK. 
A TINCTURE OF THE LEAVES OF NICOTIANA TABACUM, L. A TINCTURE OF 
THE ALKALOID NICOTINUM., 
Description.—This largely cultivated, rank, acrid, annual herb, the base of the 
most wide-spread of all narcotic habits, grows to a height of from 4 to 6 feet at 
its flowering season. oot long, fibrous and tap-shaped. Stem erect, simple, 
cylindrical, solid and viscid-pubescent. Leaves alternate, bright-green upon the 
upper surface, paler beneath, those of the base more or less petioled, large and 
broad, ovate and from one and one-half to two feet long, by from ro to 18 inches 
broad; those of the upper part of the plant more or less amplectant, oval-oblong 
or oval-lanceolate, all entire acute and glandularly pubescent. /nflorescence a 
terminal spreading panicle of rose colored or white flowers ; éracts lanceolate, acute. 
Calyx inflated-tubular or campanulate, 5-cleft, viscid-hairy; éeeth narrow-lanceolate, 
acute, Corolla; tube funnel-form, clammy-pubescent, from one and one-half to 
two inches long; /é salver-form, plaited, 5-cleft, the lobes acute and_ broadly 
triangular. Stamens 5, equal or nearly so; f/aments inserted upon the base of 
the corolla and nearly as long as the tube; axéhers small, opening longitudinally. - 
Ovary ovate, 2-celled ; style slender, about equal in length to the filaments ; st.gma 
capitate, 2-lobed. Fruit a 2-celled ovate capsule, situated in the cup of the per- 
sistent calyx; dehiscence septicidal from the apex; valves 2, becoming at length 
separated; pericarp papyraceous, thin, Seeds innumerable, minute, subcylindri- 
cal; festa sinuously, raised-reticulate. 
History and Habitat.—There seems to be little doubt that tobacco is a native 
of some portion of South or Central America, where it appears to have been used 
by the natives as a narcotic from prehistoric times. The first intimation history — 
gives of its use, is the account of the Spaniards with Columbus, who, upon landing 
at St. Domingo, in 1492, discovered the natives smoking cylinders of the dried | 
leaves, which they called cohiba. In 1498 its use was again noted by them upon 
Origin somewhat doubtful, vide idem. = 
* Jean Nicot, vide History and Habitat, p. 128-2. eee 
