336 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



TOBACCO.— NICOTIANA. 



Natural order, Luridce. A genus of the 

 Pentandria Monogy?iia class. 



Among the vegetable productions of the 

 New World, none have been so highly 

 esteemed by the inhabitants of Europe as 

 this plant ; nor is there any vegetable from 

 which human ingenuity has extracted grati- 

 fication by such singular and extraordinary 

 means as from the tobacco-leaf. Amongst all 

 the luxuries of the ancients, we discover none 

 of so curious a nature as that of drawing smoke 

 into the mouth, or of feeding the head 

 through the cavities of the nose. The use 

 of this herb, as a masticatory, would appear 

 fully as unaccountable, had we not daily in- 

 stance of the palate's becoming familiarized 

 to obnoxious tastes, by habit. Gerard, in 

 describing its use soon after its introduction 

 into this country says, " Some vse to drinke 

 it for wantonnesse, or rather custome, and 

 cannot forbeare it, no, not in the middest of 



