232 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



f restless forest-valleys a tobacco similar to that of Kentucky, Maryland, 

 Connecticut and Virginia. Frost is detrimental to the tobacco-plant; 

 not only, particularly when young, must it be guarded against it, but 

 frost will also injure the ripe crop. The scarcity of dew in some of 

 the districts of Australia militates against the production of the best 

 kinds, otherwise the yield as a rule is large, and the soil in many 

 places well adapted for this culture. Leaves of large size are frequently 

 obtained, but the final preparation of the leaf for the manufacturer 

 must be effected by experienced skill. The cruder kinds are obtained 

 with ease, and so are leaves for covering cigars. Virgin soil, with 

 rich loam, is the best for tobacco-culture, and such soil should also 

 contain a fair proportion of lime and potash, or should be enriched 

 with a calcareous manure and ashes, or with well decomposed stable- 

 manure. According to Simmonds the average yield in Greece is 

 about 800 pounds of tobacco per acre. The seedlings, two months or 

 less old, are transplanted. When the plants are coming into flower, 

 the leading top-shoots are nipped off, and the young shoots must also 

 be broken off'. A few weeks afterwards the leaves will turn to a 

 greenish yellow, which is a sign that the plants are fit to be cut, or 

 that the ripe leaves can gradually be pulled. In the former case the 

 stems are split; the drying is then effected in barns by suspension 

 from sticks across beams. The drying process occupies four or five 

 weeks, and may need to be assisted by artificial heat. Stripped of the 

 stalks, the leaf-blades are tied into bundles, to undergo sweating or a 

 kind of slight fermentation. It does not answer to continue tobacco- 

 culture beyond two years on the same soil uninterruptedly. A promi- 

 nent variety is Nicotina latissima, Miller, or N. macrophylla, Lehmann, 

 yielding largely the Chinese, the Orinoco and the Maryland tobacco. 

 Lataki a- tobacco, according to Dyer, is prepared by submitting the 

 leaves for several months to fumigation from fir-wood. Substances 

 containing cumarin, particularly the Tonka-Bean (Dipterix odorata), 

 are used to flavor tobacco and snuff. The dangerously powerful 

 nicotin (a volatile acrid alkaline oily liquid) and nicotianin (a bitter 

 aromatic lamellar substance) are both derived from tobacco in all its 

 parts, and are therapeutic agents. The tobacco-plant has been grown 

 as far north as lat. 70 22' in Norway (Schuebeler). The total 

 quantity of tobacco, entered at the custom-houses for home-consump- 

 tion in the United Kingdom during 1884 was over 52 million Ibs., 

 valued at 2,776,000. 



Niemeyera prunifera, F. v. Mueller. (Lucuma prunifera, Bentham.) 



The Australian Cainito. An evergreen tree, sparingly dispersed 

 from the north of New South Wales through the coast-forests of 

 Queensland. The fruit is of a plum-like appearance and edible. 

 Culture is likely to improve its quality. 



Nuphar multisepalum, Engelmann. 



Western North-America. This Water-Lily produces nutritious 

 seeds, which taste like Broom-Corn, and are used locally for food, but 

 are more particularly valuable for waterfowl. Various species of 



