4OO AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N.S., 23, 1921 



of Nicotiana seem to have learned to use it and to have paid little 

 or no attention to its cultivation. Some such tribes, however, did 

 burn over small areas to make the wild tobacco grow more abun 

 dantly or more luxuriantly. The tribes of North American Indians, 

 living in areas destitute of a native species of Nicotiana, either culti 

 vated some species or obtained their supply from other tribes who 

 had a supply, cultivated or wild. The relation of the different species 

 of North American tobacco to the various trade routes of the Indians 

 has not as yet been investigated, but some suggestions as to these 

 relations may become apparent as I proceed with the present discus 

 sion. When tobacco was cultivated, its planting, at least, was usually 

 attended with more or less elaborate ceremonies. 



The species of Nicotiana which is best and most widely known is 

 Nicotiana Tabacum L. It is pink-flowered and is the only species 

 belonging to its section of the genus. The variation within the 

 species, however, is so very considerable that at least five subspecies 

 may be segregated, and, superficially at least, these seem distinct 

 enough to be considered as species. The subspecies may each be 

 divided and subdivided again and again into a very large number of 

 varieties and subvarieties, so that, in general, Nicotiana Tabacum has 

 all the ear-marks of an old and widely cultivated plant. The culti 

 vation of this species, in its various forms, is almost exclusive at 

 present for the tobacco trade of all nations. It was the aboriginal 

 tobacco of the West Indies, of the greater part of Mexico, of the 

 states of Central America, of the United States of Colombia, of 

 Venezuela, of the Guianas, and of Brazil. The Brazilian name of 

 this species is said to have been "petun," and this name was very 

 generally used for tobacco in the accounts of it in the sixteenth cen 

 tury. Wiener 1 thinks that this word is a corruption of the Portu 

 guese "betume," meaning a pasty substance. It seems strange that 

 this derivation of the name was not known, if true, to any of the 

 writers on tobacco of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The 

 Mexican name for Nicotiana Tabacum, "piecelt," was also early 

 widespread. 



The origin, as well as the original sources, of Nicotiana Tabacum 



1 Loc. cit., p. 135. 



