2 THE TOBACCO PLANT. 



a virulent poison — Nicotine — by the chemical conden- 

 sation of a large quantity,* in a similar manner the 

 Potato fruit and leaves give us Solanine, " an acrid 

 narcotic poison, two grains of which given to a rabbit, 

 produced paralysis of the posterior extremities, and 

 death in two hours. Traces of this are also found in 

 the healthy tubers." f It is therefore evident that in a 

 moderate manner, we may equally smoke our tobacco 

 or eat our potato as regardless of the horrors that 

 chemistry would seem at first to disclose, as when 

 enjoying the flavour of the bitter almond, which we 

 know to be owing to the presence of Prussic acid. 

 The three principal varieties of the plant most com- 

 monly grown are, the Virginian tobacco (Nicotiana 

 tabacum — Linnaeus), which is that which was first 

 brought to Europe by Sir Francis Drake (fig. 1 of 

 Frontispiece) ; it sometimes reaches the height of seven 

 feet, and is of a strong coarse growth, the leaves, 

 sometimes two feet long, clasp the stem as shown at a, 

 and are covered with glandular hairs, which burst on 

 the smallest pressure, and impart a glutinous character 

 to the leaf, and an unpleasant odour to the hand. The 

 flowers grow in a bunch on the summit of the plant, 

 they are of a pink colour, the segments of the corolla 



* Johnston, in his Chemistry of Common Life, tells us that Melseus 

 extracted three-quarters of a grain of nicotine from one hundred grains of 

 Virginian tobacco, so that the proportions are as 1 to 125. In 1851, the 

 Comte de Bocarme was executed at Mons for poisoning a brother-in-law 

 by means of nicotine, in order to obtain the reversion of his property. 



+ Prescott (on the authority of Fereira), in his Tobacco, and its 

 Adulterations. 



