CLVII. SOLANEJ3. 581 



N. Tabacum,w&a employed by the Caribbeans as a sedative, and called tabaco or petun, according as they 

 smoked or snuffed it. It was introduced, about 1520, into Portugal and Spain lay Doctor Hernandez of 

 Toledo ; into Italy by Tornabon and the Cardinal de Sainte-Croix ; into England by Captain Drake, and 

 into France by Andre The vet, a gray friar. It was through John Nicot, ambassador at Lisbon, that 

 Tobacco first acquired its popularity ; he sent to Queen Catharine de Medicis, together with some Tobacco 

 seeds, a little box full of powdered Tobacco ; the queen acquired a taste for it, and the plant was thence 

 called Nicotian and Herbe a la Heine. The Abbe Jacques Gohory, the author of the first book written in 

 France on Tobacco, proposed to call it Catherinaire or Medicee, to record the name of Medicis and the 

 medicinal virtues of the plant ; but the name of Nicot superseded these, and botanists have perpetuated it 

 in the genus Nicotiana. During the latter half of the sixteenth century the sovereigns of Europe, of Persia 

 and of Turkey, vainly endeavoured, by more or less severe measures, to stem the increasing popularity of 

 Tobacco ; but in the following century, perceiving that its popularity might be made the means of raising 

 a revenue, they tolerated its use and either heavily taxed it, or reserved to themselves the monopoly of 

 it. It was in 1621 that the French government first put a duty on Tobacco of forty sols the quintal (less 

 than five centimes the kilogramme). In 1074 the monopoly of Tobacco was granted to the farmer- 

 general of taxes : he received iu 1697, 250,000 livres of Tours ; in 1718, four millions ; in 1730, eight 

 millions; in 1789, thirty-seven millions. The office was suppressed in 1791. From 1801 to 1804 this 

 tax produced annually about 4,800,000 francs. The government monopoly was re-established in 1811, 

 and from 1814 to 1844 Tobacco yielded a clear profit of 1,625,000,000 francs, an average of fifty' four millions 

 yearly ; and in 1840 seventy-five millions. From 1844 to 1864 the profit was two thousand millions ; 

 an increase so rapid that Tobacco, snuft'ed, smoked and chewed, will probably in a few years yield double 

 the revenue it now does. 



Tobacco is sometimes used medicinally, but only externally ; its properties are those of other poisonous 

 Solanece, and are due to a peculiar and extremely poisonous alkaloid, named nicotine. [Tobacco-oil is one 

 of the most deadly poisons]. The N. rustica, also a native of America, is employed in the same way as 

 N. Tabacum. 



The Winter Cherry (Physalis Alkekengi) is a European plant of which the fruit, enclosed in a red 

 accrescent calyx, is a diuretic. The Chili (Capsicum annuum), an Indian annual, bears a sub-succulent 

 berry with an acrid [burning] principle, hence much used as a condiment in all countries. Cayenne 

 Pepper, [the ground fruit of] a sub-woody Capsicum, is a much more powerful excitant. The Tomato, or 

 Love Apple (Lycopersicum esculentum), now cultivated everywhere, is a bright red tropical American 

 fruit, filled with an orange acid pulp, much used as a vegetable. The genus Solatium (Nightshade), 

 which gives its name to the order, comprises nearly twice as many species as the other Solaiiece. 

 The Bitter-sweet (S. Dulcamara), an indigenous shrub, the bitter stem of which leaves a mild taste in 

 the mouth, is a depurative in cutaneous disorders. The species of Solatium all contain an emetic and 

 narcotic alkaloid (solanine), which in the Black Nightshade (S. niyrum), a small herb with a poisonous 

 smell, common near habitations, and in many exotic species (S. yuineense, S. pterocaulon), is neutralized 

 by an acid and diluted by a mucilage ; owing to these the Nightshades, after being boiled to remove 

 the poisonous odour, are employed like Spinach in tropical regions, under the name of brides. [In Eng- 

 land both S. Dulcamara and & nigrum are regarded as very dangerous plants]. 



The Brinjal, Aubergine or Egg-plant of Asia (S. Melongena), now cultivated in Europe, bears a large 

 ovoid violet or yellowish fruit with a white flesh, which is edible when cooked ; as is that of S. oviferum, 

 which resembles a hen's egg. 



Of all the Solanece the most useful to man is the Potato (S. ttiberosuiri), a native of the Cordilleras 

 of Peru and Chili, and now cultivated throughout the world. Besides the agreeable wholesome tubers, 

 its starch yields a cheap sugar and alcohol. The tuber is the only edible part of the Potato plant; the 

 leaves, fruit, and even the buds which spring from the eyes of the Potato contain solanine, and are narcotic. 

 [The fruits of several are not only edible, but favourite articles of focd ; as those of S. laciniatum, the 

 Kangaroo Apple of Australia ; S. quitoense, the Naranyitas de Quito (Quito Orange), and others. ED.] 



