PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR STEMS OR LEAVES. 141 



two specimens collected by Pavon, from different locali- 

 ties.-^ Pavon sa^^s in his liora that the species grows in 

 the moist warm forests of the Peruvian Andes, and that it 

 is cultivated. But — and this is more significant — Edouard 

 Andre gathered specimens in the republic of Ecquador 

 at Saint Nicholas, on the v/estern slope of the volcano of 

 Corazon in a virgin forest. These he was kind enough 

 to send me. They are evidently the tall variety (four to 

 six feet) of N. Tahacum, with the upper leaves narrow 

 and acuminate, as they are represented in the plates of 

 Hayne and Miller.^ The lower leaves are wanting. The 

 flower, which gives the true characters of the species, is 

 certainly that of N, Tahacum, and it is well known that 

 the height of this plant and the breadth of the leaves 

 vary in cultivation.^ It is very possible that its original 

 country extended north as far as Mexico, as far south as 

 Bolivia, and eastward to Venezuela. 



Nicotiana rustica, Linnreus, a species with yellow 

 flowers, very different from Tahacum,^ and which yields 

 a coarse kind of tobacco, was more often cultivated by 

 the Mexicans and the native tribes north of Mexico. I 

 have a specimen brought from California by Douglas in 

 1837, a time when colonists were still few; but American 

 authorities do not admit that the plant is wild, and Dr. 

 Asa Gray says that it sows itself in waste places.^ This 

 v/as perhaps the case with the specimens in Boissier's 

 herbarium, gathered in Peru by Pavon, and which he 

 does not mention in the Peruvian flora. The species 

 grows in abundance about Cordova in the Argentine 

 Republic/ but from what epoch is unknown. From the 



* One of these is classed under the name Nicot. fruticosa^ which in 

 my opinion is the same species, tall, but not woody, as the name would 

 lead one to believe. N. auriculata, Bertero, is also Tahacum, according 

 to my authentic specimens. 



^ Hayne, Arzneikunde Gewachset vol. xii. t. 41; Miller, Figures of 

 Plants, pi. 185, f. 1. 



^ Tlie capsule is sometimes shorter and sonaetimos longer than the 

 calix, on the same plant, in Andre's specimens. 



* See the figures of N. rustica in Plee, Types de Families Natiirelles 

 de France, Solanees ; BuUiard, Herhier de France, t. 289. 



^ Asa Gray, 8'jn. Flora of North Amer. (1878), p. 21-1. 

 ^ Martin de Moussy, Descr. de la Repub. Argent. ^ i. p. 193. 



