ANCIENT DESCRIPTION. 19 



surrounded by a hairy clammy substance, of a greenish yellow 

 color. The leaves are of a light green ; they grow alternately, 

 at intervals of two or three inches on the stalk ; they are 

 oblong and spear-sliaped ; those lowest on the stalk are about 

 twenty inches in length, and they decrease as they ascend. 



The young leaves when about six inches, are of a deep 

 green color and rather smooth, and as they approach maturity 

 they become yellowish and rougher on the surface. The 

 flowers grow in clusters from the extremities of the stalk ; 

 they are yellow externally and of a delicate red within. They 

 are succeeded by kidney shaped capsules of a brown color. 



Thompson in his " Notices relative to Tobacco " describes 

 the tobacco plant as follows : 



" The species of Nicotiana which was first known, and 

 which still furnishes the greatest supply of Tobacco, is the 

 !N. tobacum, an annual plant, a native of South America, but 

 naturalized to our climate. It is a tall, not inelegant plant, 

 rising to the height of about six feet, with a strong, round, 

 villous, slightly viscid stern, furnished with alternate leaves, 

 which are sessile, or clasp the steins; and are decurrent, lan- 

 ceolate, entire ; of a full green on the upper surface, and pale 

 on the under. 



" In a vigorous plant, the lower leaves are about twenty 

 inches in length, and from three to five in breadth, decreasing 

 as they ascend. The inflorescence, or flowering part of the 

 stem, is terminal, loosely branching in that form which 

 botanists term a panicle, with long, linear floral leaves or 

 bractes at the origin of each division. 



" The flowers, which bloom in July and August, are of a 

 pale pink or rose color : the calyx, or flower-cup, is bell-shaped, 

 obscurely pentangular, villous, slightly viscid, and presenting 

 at the margin five acute, erect segments. The corolla is 

 twice the length of the calyx, viscid, tubular below, swelling 

 above into an oblong cup, and expanding at the lip into five 

 somewhat plaited, pointed segments ; the seed vessel is an 

 oblong or ovate capsule, containing numerous reniform seeds, 

 which are-ripe in September and October ; and if not collected, 

 are shed by the capsule opening at the apex." 



In Stevens and Liebault's Maison Rustique, or the Country 

 Farm, (London, 1606), is found the following curious account 

 of the tobacco plant : 



