TROPICAL TOBACCO. 33} 



plants. "When left to grow until the plants have reached 

 full size, the tobacco field has the appearance of a vast flower 

 garden, the tiny blossoms exhaling their fragrance and the 

 entire plant emitting odors as rare and as delicate as the most 

 fragrant exotic. In the tropics the finest tobacco plantations 

 are found, as nature is more lavish, not only in the richness 

 of the soil, but in the variety of the vegetable products. 

 Here the tobacco plant attains its finest form and most deli- 

 cately flavored leaves. The hues of the flowers are brighter 

 and their fragrance sweeter. In the tropics the tobacco field 

 may be scented from afar, as its odors are wafted on the 

 breeze. In its native home it flourishes and matures as 

 readily as the more common kinds of vegetation, while it 

 affords the planter a larger revenue than many of the more 

 useful of nature's products. 



