CHAPTER V. 



TOBACCO AND ITS CULTIVATION. 



The following is extracted from an article by Mr. T. Phillips- 

 Gibson, an expert, which appeared recently in the Gazette of the 

 New South Wales department of agriculture, and is thoroughly 

 applicable to the cultivation of tobacco in this colony. 



The tobacco plant is known to botanists by the generic name 

 of Nicotiana (a name confirmed by Linnaeus), in honor of Jean 

 Nicot, the ambassador from the King of France to Portugal, and 

 who first procured seeds, which he forwarded to France. The first 

 description of the plant is given by Ovideo, in a work published in 

 Seville in 1535 ; and Lobel, in an appendix to his History of 

 Plants (1576), gives a drawing of a tube used in smoking by the 

 natives of San Salvador. The genus Nicotiana belongs to the 

 natural order Solanacecc or nightshade family, to which order 

 belongs the potato, tomato, capsicum, henbane and deadly night- 

 shade, all of which are remarkable for the poisonous qualities of 

 their foliage. Of some 50 varieties of the genus Nicotiana all are 

 natives of America except two, namely, X. siiaveolens, Lhem., which 

 is a native of all the Australian colonies, and is known as " native 

 tobacco " ; and X.fragrans, a native of New Caledonia. The best- 

 known species are as follows : 



1. Nicotiana tabacnni, of which there are two varieties, viz., 

 niacroplivlla (Maryland tobacco), and angustifolia (Virginian tobacco). 

 Each of these two varieties- is divided into several sub-varieties, 

 chiefly distinguished by the leaves having stalks or being stalkless. 

 N. tabacuni V. niacwphylla is the variety which affords the famous 

 Cuban and Manilla tobaccoes; it has a broad leaf, which is fine, soft, 

 and thin, and is much valued in the trade for the finer qualities of 

 tobacco and cigar wrappers. A T . tabacuni ?-. angustifohum is the 

 most commonly cultivated variety in the United States and India. 

 It makes good snuff, and is stated to be the kind from which the 

 celebrated Latakia tobacco is made. 



2. Xicolidiiti /7/.v//(v/, best known as Hungarian tobacco, is 

 largely grown in Europe, Asia, and America. There are also two 

 varieties, a large leaved and a small leaved kind, both of which 

 yield tobacco of good quality. 



3. Xicoliana /Vr.wV</, a form of X. lohaciini, produced by climatic 

 influences, but long thought to be a distinct type. This variety 

 affords the famous Shirax tobacco. As this is the kind which may 

 probably be most successfully grown in this colony, and has 



