128-2 
the British West Indian Island of Tobago. It was either from this island, or from 
the native word meaning pipe, /odaco, that the specific name was derived. Tobacco 
was quite extensively used by the Spaniards in Yucatan as early as 1520, and 
from there its use was introduced into Spain by Hernandez de Toledo in 1559; 
about this time also, it was first grown in Europe, at Lisbon, and from there in 
1560, Jean Nicot, ambassador to France, sent seeds, mentioning them as the 
germs of a medicinal plant of great value. From this circumstance Linnaeus 
honored him with its generic name, Nicotiana. In 1585 its use by the Canadian 
Indians was discovered, and in 1586 it was brought to England by Sir Francis 
Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh and his companions. About the year 1600 the 
plant was introduced into Java, Turkey, India and China, though some historians 
feel confident that the Chinese had used the leaves long before this period, attempt- 
ing thus to more fully substantiate the theory often promulgated that the Chinese 
had visited the western shores of America long before the discovery of the eastern 
coasts by the Spaniards. The rapidity with which this plant has traveled from one 
extremity of the temperate and torrid zones to the other, notwithstanding the act 
of English Parliament, the Popish bull, the Russian knout and death, the com- 
mands of the priests and sultans of Turkey and Persia, and the edict of the 
hwang-ti of China, is almost incredible, the very opposition that attended its first 
introduction into all countries seemed only to urge its onward rush, until it has 
gained to-day a prominence greater than any other known plant. 
Besides the true Virginian tobacco (Micotiana Tabacum, L.) for which the 
genus was composed, the following species and varieties have been determined: 
N. rustica, L., a species with greenish-yellow flowers, cultivated in Mexico, India, 
Syria, and Turkey (Zatekza), and found escaped in the northern United States; 
N. Tabacum, var, undulata, Sendiner, found in Brazil; NM. guadrivalvis, var. multi- 
valvis, Gray, a relic of aboriginal cultivation in Oregon; WM. Palmer7,an Arizo- 
nian species (Palmer); VV. Clevelandi, a Californian species (Cleveland); WV. Peum- 
baginifolia, Viv., a Mexican species (Berlandier); JN. Jructicosa, L., a beautiful 
species with sharply pointed capsules ; V. persica, Lind/., cultivated as the fragrant 
Shiraz or Persian tobacco; WV. repanda, Willd., furnishing the fine Havana and 
Cuban leaves; WV. guadrivalvis, Pursh., used by the Indians along the Missouri 
river, and called by them zouchaw; N. nana, Lindl., the plant of the Rocky Moun- 
tain tribes; NV. chinensis, as cultivated in China and Japan; WV. trigonophylla, 
Dunal, N. Bigelovii, Watson, and N. attenuata, Torrey, the leaves of all of which 
being used by the Indians of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Southern Califor- 
nia, and said to be stronger than the cultivated plants (Palmer); 4. lancifolia, 
Willd.,and N. Yoarrensis, HBK., to which Prof. Asa Gray refers the Yagui 
Tobacco, cultivated in Arizona (Palmer); and N. petiolata, a variety of cultivation 
in the United States. 
_ The tobacco plant flowers in temperate re 
with the locality and season. 
Tobacco can be raised in its proper soil at almost any point between the 
equator and the soth degree N. or S. latitude, the better grades however not. 
above the 35th degree, and the best between the 15th and 35th degrees, north. 
gions from June to August, varying 
