SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 409 



tively simple mutation. An additional argument 'as to the possible 

 derivation of this species from some simpler form is the fact that it 

 has not been found outside of cultivation. 



Nicotiana multivalvis was discovered by David Douglas 1 in Au 

 gust, 1825. The first specimen he saw of it was in the hands of an 

 Indian at the great falls of the Columbia River, but, although he 

 offered two ounces of manufactured tobacco, an enormous remunera 

 tion, the Indian would not part with it. The Indians planted it away 

 from the villages so that it could not be pulled before maturity. They 

 burned a dead tree or stump in the open wood and strewed the ashes 

 over the ground to be planted. Later on, Douglas found one of the 

 little plantations and helped himself to specimens. Soon after, how 

 ever, he met the owner who appeared much displeased on seeing the 

 plants under Douglas's arm. A present of an ounce of European 

 tobacco appeased him and the present of an additional ounce induced 

 him to talk of the Indian tobacco and to answer questions concerning 

 it. Douglas learned from the Indian that he put wood ashes over 

 the ground because it was supposed that the ashes make the tobacco 

 plants to grow very large. He also learned that this species of to 

 bacco grew plentifully in the country of the Snake Indians, who may 

 have brought it from the headwaters of the Missouri River which 

 they annually visited, and have distributed it from this region and in 

 both directions east and west of the Rocky Mountains. This sug 

 gestion of the Indian probably represents a portion of the truth as 

 regards the travels of this species, but the general trend must have 

 been rather from the coast to the eastward and into the interior, if 

 the botanical probabilities are duly considered. 



Through the kindness of Dr. Robert H. Lowie, of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, I have been able to make certain that 

 the tobacco which is of so much ceremonial importance among the 

 Crow Indians is Nicotiana multivalvis. I have examined photo 

 graphs of the tobacco gardens of the Crows, in which the plants 

 showed their characters remarkably well, and also a pressed specimen 

 of an entire plant concerning whose identity there can be no doubt. 



i Journal Kept by David Douglas, etc., London, 1914, pp. 59, 141 (sub. N. 

 pulverulenta Pursh). 



