LBBBONS IN BOTANY. 



121 



Oriental wort hies thought that tho shortcut way to check the habit , 

 Milling would consist in cutting off people 1 ! noses. This : 

 r. in. .|y they carried, we are told, pretty liberally into execution. 

 Tho origin of the word tobacco baa been traced to various | 

 1 ty some it ia said to bo derived from Tabacoa, a province j 

 V ucatan, in Mexico. Others, with an equal degree of proba- 

 liility, trace the derivation of tho word to Tobago, one of tho 

 I irit i-h Weet India Islands, near Trinidad, belonging to tho Wind- 

 ward group. Hnmboldt, however, aaya that the word tabacco was 

 used by the Caribbee inlanders aa the name of the pipo in which 



smoked tho dried 

 -i of the plant, and 

 that the Spaniards ulti- 

 mately applied this desig- 

 nation to the plant itself. 

 Ita culture is attended 

 with aome difficulty, as a 

 alight frost will of ten tend 

 to check the growth of 

 the young plants, if it 

 does not cause a more 

 serious injury, and destroy 

 a great part of the crop. 

 Tobacco ia largely cul- 

 tivated in all parts of 

 Southern and Western 

 Europe, except Great Bri- 

 tain and Ireland, where 

 ita culture is prohibited 

 by Act of Parliament: 

 Its cultivation in this 

 country was forbidden 

 in 1684; butin 1779 per- 

 mission was given to tho 

 Irish farmers to grow 

 tobacco, and this privilege 

 if privilege it can bo 

 called waa enjoyed by 

 the Irish until 1831, when 

 an act was passed to re- 

 vive tho former act, under 

 which the cultivation of 

 the plant had formerly 

 been prohibited. 



The petunia, a beautiful 

 specimen of our half- 

 hardy herbaceous peren- 

 nials, is closely allied to 

 the tobacco plant, its 

 name being derived from 

 pctun, the Brazilian name 

 for tobacco. It makes a 

 showy appearance in the 

 borders during tho sum- 

 mer and autumn, but re- 

 quires to be protected 

 under gloss during the 

 winter and early spring. 



SECT. XXXTT. LEGU- 



MINOS^E, OR THE LE- 163. BLOSSOM, BOOTS, AND LEAVES 



GUMINOUS TRIBE. (NICOTIANA 



The structural charac- 

 teristics of the fruit 



termed by botanists a legume we shall presently enumerate ; 

 meanwhile, wo will inform the reader that a legume ia merely 

 another name for pod, the sort of fruit borne by the pea, clover, 

 laburnum, and many others which will easily suggest themselves. 



Characteristics : Calyx free and monosepalous ; corolla of five 

 petals, perigynous or hypogynous, regular or irregular ; atamena 

 double the number of petals, or occasionally indefinite, perigy- 

 nous ; pistil composed of one carpel ; fruit, a legume ; aeed, 

 dicotyledonona ; embryo straight or curved, exalbuminoua ; 

 leaves, alternate, stipulate. 



This is an exceedingly large and very valuable order of vege- 

 tables, all of which present strong marks of family resemblance, 

 and. moreover, possess a similarity of chemical and physiological 

 qualities 



Tho great universal characteristic of the plant* of this tribe 

 is that from which they derive their name Uynmimotm i l*t as, 

 therefore, examine the anatomy of a Itgvme. A Ugume, then, 

 is nothing more than a long, flat carpal, for the most part con- 

 taining many seeds, and splitting, when arrived at maturity, 

 into two halves. The seeds, it will be remembered, all grow 

 from one commissure or junction line in the inside of the 

 ciirjrt-1. 



As regards relative dimensions, legumes differ considerably, 

 some being longer than they are broad, others the reverse. Thi* 



circumstance, however, 

 gives rise to no physiolo- 

 gical distinction between 

 the two. 



A* the Leyuminota form 

 an exceedingly numerous 

 order, and comprehend 

 plant* amongst which dif- 

 ferences of structure exist 

 insufficient to justify ^**fr 

 formation into different 

 orders, they are divided 

 into groups, the distinc- 

 tions between which will 

 presently come under con- 

 sideration. One of these 

 groups, perhaps the most 

 important, is the Pea 

 tribe, the member* of 

 which are sufficiently fa- 

 miliar to all of us. Inde- 

 pendently of the existence 

 of a pod, in these plant* 

 there is another striking 

 peculiarity; the flower* 

 are shaped very much like 

 butterflies. Hence arises 

 the denomination papilio- 

 naceous (from papiliv, the 

 Latin for butterfly), by 

 which the pea enb-divi- 

 Fion of the Leywmvkotu i 

 known. 



Let us now study one 

 of these flowers a little in 

 detail. The calyx is made 

 up of five sepals, all of 

 which unite in a tube. 

 The corolla is made up of 

 five petals, not all, how- 

 ever, of equal sue. One 

 of them is considerably 

 larger than the other*, 

 and rises behind them. 

 This petal has acquired 

 among botanist* the dis- 

 tinctive name of twntbis* 

 or standard. The two 

 \ shorter petals which stand 



in front of the standard 

 are termed ota, or vingt. 

 The remaining portion of 

 the corolla, formed like a 

 boat, from which circum- 

 stance it derives the appellation carino, or keel, is composed of 

 two petals slightly united. 



Next observe the stamens, and you will find they are col- 

 lected in groups, or, to use the expression of Jjnninos, they 

 are "adelphous." All the common papilionaceous flowers are 

 adelphoua ; but many foreign specie*, especially certain native* 

 of New South Wales, Pultenaeat Gompholobiumt, .Damn**, 

 etc., are not. 



Next come the plants, which, although bearing legume* or 

 pods, are not provided with papilionaceous flowers, 

 sion comprehends all the Cassias and their allies. La*Uy, we 

 have the Mimosa tribe, the great characteristic of which is 

 the poaaeasion of flowers with a regular corolla and indefinite 

 stamen*. 



OF THE HEXICAN TOBACCO PLANT 



RUSTIC A). 



