392 SOUTH AMERICAN TOBACCO. 



however of inferior quality, and is used only for smoking or 

 snuff. Perique tobacco, when cut for smoking, is very black 

 in appearance, exceedingly smooth, and of peculiar odor. It 

 is probably the thinnest tobacco cultivated; and is strong, 

 but of agreeable flavor. 



PEKUVIAN TOBACCO. 



John Gerard gives the following description of the tobacco 

 of Peru: 



" Tobacco, or henbane of Peru, hath very great stalks of 

 the bigness of a child's arme, growing in fertile and well- 

 dunged ground of seven or eight feet high, dividing itself in 

 sundry branches of great length; whereon are placed in 

 most comely order very faire, long leaves, broad, smooth and 

 sharp-pointed, soft and of a light green color; so fastened 

 about the stalk that they seem to embrace and compass it 

 about. The flowers grow at the top of the stalks in shape 

 like a bell-flower, somewhat long and cornered ; hollow within, 

 of a light carnation color, tending to whiteness towards the 

 rims. The seed is contained in long, sharp-pointed cods, or 

 seed-vessels, like unto the seed of yellow henbane, but some- 

 what smaller, and browner of color. The root is great, thicke 

 and of a wooddy substance, with some threddy strings 

 annexed thereunto." 



MEXICAN TOBACCO. 



The tobacco plant seems to have been cultivated in Mexico 

 from time immemorial. Francisco Lopez de Gomara, who 

 was chaplain to Cortez, when he made conquest of Mexico, 

 in 1519, alludes to the plant and the custom of smoking ; and 

 Diaz relates that the king Montezuma had his pipe brought 

 with much ceremony by the chief ladies of his court, after 

 he had dined and washed his mouth with scented water. 

 The Spaniards encouraged its cultivation, and to this day it is 

 grown in several of the coast states. Various kinds are cul- 

 tivated, but chiefly a variety bearing yellow flowers, with a 

 large leaf of fine flavor resembling the Havana. The plant 

 is a favorite with the Mexicans, who prefer it to any other 

 product grown. It is cultivated like most varieties of 



