82 THE ORIGINAL IMPORTER. 



Portugal, and who obtained while at Lisbon some tobacco 

 seed from a Dutch merchant who had brought it from Florida.* 

 Nicot returned to France in 1561, and presented the Queen, 

 Catherine de Medicis, with a few leaves of the plarit.f 



As the history of Nicot is so intimately connected with 

 that of the plant, a short sketch of this original importer will 

 doubtless be interesting to all lovers of the weed : 



" John Nicot, Sieur de Yillemain, was born at Nismes in 

 1530, and died at Paris in 1600. He was the son of a notary 

 at Nismes, and started in life with a good education, but 

 with no fortune. Finding that his native town offered no 

 suitable or sufficient field for his energies, he went to Paris 

 and strove hard to extend his studies as a scholar and his 

 connections as an adventurer. He made the acquaintance of 

 some courtiers, who felt or affected an interest in learning 

 and in learned men. His manners were insinuating; his 

 character was pliable. When presented at court he succeeded 

 in gaining the esteem and confidence of Henry II., the hus- 

 band of Catherine de Medicis. Francis II., the son of Henry 

 II., and the first husband of Mary Stuart, continued to Nicot 

 the favor of which Henry II. had deemed him worthy, and 

 sent him in 1560 as ambassador to Sebastian, King of Portu- 

 gal. He was successful in his mission. But it was neither 

 his talents as a diplomatist, nor his remarkable mind, nor his 

 solid erudition, which made Nicot immortal. It was by 

 popularizing tobacco in France that he gained a lasting fame. 



" It is said that it was at Lisbon that Nicot became 

 acquainted with the extraordinary properties of tobacco. 

 But it is likewise stated with quite as much confidence, that 

 a Flemish merchant, who had just returned from America, 

 offered Nicot at Bordeaux, where they met, some seeds of 

 the tobacco, telling him of their value. The seeds Nicot 

 sent to Catherine de Medicis, and on arriving in Paris he 

 gave her some leaves of tobacco. Hence, when tobacco began 

 to creep into use in France it was called Queen's Herb or 

 Medicean Herb.J The cultivation of tobacco, except as a 

 fancy plant, did not begin in France till 1626 ; and John 



Parkinson in his Herball [London, 16401 says:" It is thought by some that John Nicot, 

 this Frenchman, being agent in Portajrall for the French KiiiR. pent this sort of tobacco 

 [Brazil land not any other to the French Qnrene, iind is called therefore herba Regina, and 

 iroin Nicotinna, which la probably because the Portugalls and not the Spaniards were mas- 

 ters of Brazil** sit that time." 



t" Sir John Nicot sent some seeds of It into France, to Kinsr Francis IL.theOueen Mother, 

 and Lord Jarmic, Governor of Ilochel, imd several others of the French Lords. ' 



JTlic Abbe Jacques Gohory, tin- author of the l)n>t book written on tobacao, proposed to 

 call it Ciitherlnstine or Medicee, to record ihe name of Mrdicis and the medicinal virtues of 

 the plant ; but the name of Nicot superseded these, and botanists have perpetuated it iu tho 

 genus Mcotiana."Le Maout and Decaistie. 



