SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 405 



feet, has long erect branches with elongated internodes, and with 

 large flowers which are more separated than in the plants of the 

 taxonomic type. In common with the type of the species, this tall 

 and erect variety has a decided tendency toward a three-celled ovary 

 and such are to be found in most well-developed plants although in 

 a small percentage of the total number of capsules matured. Chest 

 nut 1 states that this variety is used for smoking and also for chewing 

 by all the Indian tribes of Mendocino County, California. Thanks 

 to P. E. Goddard 2 and S. A. Barrett, I have perfectly reliable evi 

 dence that it is still used by the Hupa and the Pomo. The Hupa, at 

 least, knew it both wild and cultivated, 3 but the Pomo seem to have 

 used only the wild plant. As to how far the use of this variety 

 extended into Oregon I am uncertain, but I have the opinion that, to 

 wards its northern limits and beyond them, attempts were made to 

 cultivate it, as certainly was the case among the Hupa. Northern 

 California represents the limit of the spontaneous distribution of any 

 coastal species of Nicotiana and in Oregon we find that the cultivated 

 tobacco of certain Indian tribes was a nearly related species, or 

 possibly derived variety, of N. Bigelovii, viz., N. multivalvis Lindl. 

 There can be little doubt that it was some form of the Bigelovii- 

 group of the genus Nicotiana which was used by the Indians whom 

 Drake encountered in 1579, when he landed on the coast of California, 

 somewhere in the vicinity of Drake's Bay. Wiener* remarks on 

 Drake's account as follows : " That tabaco, first mentioned in His- 

 paniola, should have found its way so far to the northwest, in addi 

 tion to the rest of the continent, is a prima facie proof that the dis 

 tribution of tobacco follows from its first appearance under Arabic 

 influence, from Guinea to all countries where Spanish, Portuguese, 

 and French sailors navigated via Guinea or after having taken part 

 in Guinea expeditions." The extreme improbability of Nicotiana 

 Bigelovii having originated in Guinea and having been brought thence 



1 Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California, Contr. U. S. 

 National Herb., vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 386, 387, 1902. 



2 Life and Culture of the Hupa, in Univ. Calif. Pubs., Amer. Arch, and 

 Eth., vol. i, no. i, p. 37, 1903. 



3 Goddard, loc. cit. 

 * Loc. cit., p. 14;. 



