122 PENTANDRIA. 



or nag beset, the experimenter, persevering, finally becomes 

 his own victim. A hundred volumes, it is said, havs been 

 written against the use of Tobacco, of which a German has 

 preserved the titles. Among these is the book of James Stu- 

 art, king of England, who, with all his might, came out 

 against it. The grand duke of Moscow forbade its entrance 

 into his territory, under pain of the knout for the first offence, 

 and death for the second. In like manner, the Grand Sultan, 

 at Constantinople, pope Urban, at Rome, and the king of Per- 

 sia, all issued, either firmans, bulls, or edicts, against it. But 

 still, like a " dark, walking" disease, the contagion caught, 

 and the evil spread, until at present all the sovereigns of Eu- 

 rope, and most of the princes and governments of the earth, 

 derive a considerable proportion of their revenues from To- 

 bacco. 



Tobacco was first carried to England from the island of 

 Tobago, or from Tobasco, in Mexico, in 1586. The seeds 

 were introduced some time afterwards. Sir Walter Raleigh 

 was the first to introduce its use by smoking, which he had 

 learned in Virginia ; and in the house in which he lived at 

 Islington, are still to be seen his arms, on a shield, with a 

 Tobacco plant at the top. 



GENUS Atropa. Atropa was one of the fates, whose duty 

 it was to cut the thread of human life, and, says an author, 

 " the fruit of this genus are well adapted to the fulfilling of 

 her office." BeUadonna, means fine lady, perhaps in allusion 

 to its use as a wash to beautify the skin. The deadly Night- 

 shade, (Atropa Belladonna,) is an herbaceous, perennial plant, 

 with smooth ovate leaves, and axillary flowers. It grows 

 several feet high, and sends out many branches. The whole 

 plant has a purplish tinge. The flowers are void of smell, 

 and the berries, at first green, are, when ripe, of a beautiful 

 shining black. 



The whole plant, and especially the berries, are strongly 

 poisonous, when taken into the stomach. 



GENUS Solanum. Nightshade. This extensive genus in- 

 cludes species which are extremely unlike each other. We 

 have here the most important of all tubers, or perhaps to 

 man, even the most necessary of all vegetables, the Potato. 

 Then follows the Egg Plant, the Love Apple, (Tomato,) the 



What is said of the number of volumes which have been written against 

 the use of this plant ? When was tobacco first carried to England i What 

 is the native country of the potato ? What plants are associated in the 

 ame genus with the potato? 



