140 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



hundred and twenty feet high, are distinctive 

 features. The long-leaved pitch pine, one o* 

 the most picturesque of trees, covers an arid 

 soil on the coast of the Atlantic to the extent of 

 sixty thousand square miles. In the prairies of 

 the valley of the Mississippi, dahlias, and even- 

 ing primroses (CEnothera) abound with species 

 of knapweed, (Centaurea^) wormwood, and 

 milk-vetch, (Astragalus.) Seven species of 

 pine are indigenous in California, some of 

 which have measured two hundred and even 

 three hundred feet in height, and eighty feet in 

 circumference. Here, too, grow the beautiful 

 flowering currant bushes, now become so gene- 

 ral in our gardens, and so ornamental in spring, 

 (Ribes sanguineum, and R. aureum,) and hence, 

 too, come some of the most beautiful annuals 

 of our flower borders, as Gilia tricolor, ClarMa 

 pulchella, Bartonia aurea, Collinsia bicolor, Ery- 

 mmum peroffskianum, etc. 



The tobacco plant (Nicotiana tabacum) is a 

 native of this part of America, and of Persia. 

 Three species only are cultivated for use, the 

 above, and N. macrophylla and rustica. The 

 practice of tobacco smoking was introduced by 

 sir Walter Raleigh, about 1586. Its use, how- 

 ever, like that of coffee, encountered much 

 opposition. Laws and severe penalties were 

 enacted against it. The grand duke of Moscow 

 forbade its entrance into his territory, under 

 pain of the knout for the first offence, and 

 death for the next. The emperor of the Turks, 

 the king of Persia, and pope Urban vin., all 



