CULTIVATION. 27 



PART 11. 



CULTIVATION, 



If the absolute abundance of any of the products 

 of nature be any criterion by which we may infer 

 some commensurately extensive purpose to be 

 subserved thereby, the immense varieties of 

 tobacco, the rapidity and vigour of its growth, 

 the prodigious quantity of its seed in each plant, 

 and the great difference of climate in which it 

 will thrive and reward cultivation, must exalt it 

 highly amongst the agents of the terrestrial 

 economy. Forty species have been named, but 

 only eight or ten are cultivated, in different 

 varieties. The most abundantly grown is the 

 Nicotiana tabacum — so named after Nicot, the 

 Frenchman, who introduced it into France. This 

 species may be taken as the type of the most 

 beautiful symmetry of all the family. I have seen 

 the plant full six feet in height — the growth of 



