191 NICOTIANA TABACUM 



bud. Stamens 5, inserted in the base of the corolla, filaments 

 about the length of the tube, one usually shorter than the rest, 

 anthers small, oblong. Ovary smooth, conical, 2- celled, style 

 about as long as stamens, slender, stigma bilobed. Capsule 

 barely an inch long, often shorter, ovate in outline, the lower 

 half closely covered by the dry persistent calyx, pericarp thin, 

 papery, veined, splitting septicidally into 2 valves, which again 

 are partially split from the top, 2 -celled, placentas axile, large, 

 spongy. Seeds minute, very numerous, somewhat irregular in 

 form, oblong, ovoid, or sub-reniform, pale brown, the testa marked 

 with a raised reticulation of large pattern with sinuous meshes ; 

 embryo slightly curved in axis of endosperm. 



Habitat. There is no doubt that the tobacco is a native of 

 some part of South or Central America, but the precise country 

 of its origin cannot now be determined. Martius considered it 

 introduced in Brazil, and it is nowhere known in a truly wild 

 state. 



The plant was first grown in Europe at Lisbon in 1560, the 

 dried leaves and the practice of smoking having been introduced 

 nearly a century before by the Spaniards. In nearly all temperate 

 and warm countries of both hemispheres, the culture of tobacco is 

 now carried on j it grows well in England, into which country it 

 was introduced before 1570, and is now frequently employed as 

 an ornamental plant in gardens, but except in very small quantity 

 it has been, since 1660, illegal to cultivate it for use ; the statute 

 then passed for the benefit of the " American Colonies " being 

 still unrepealed. It flowers freely from late summer till the 

 middle of September. 



Many varieties are recognised by cultivators, the principal 

 characters being found in the form of the leaves, and colour and 

 size of the flowers. The remarkable N. fruticosa, Linn., lately 

 figured (Bot. Mag. 6207) as a variety of the present species, is 

 a very handsome plant, and differs especially in its sharp-pointed 

 capsules : there are good specimens in the British Museum, one 

 from Teneriffe. 



Dunal, in DC., 1. c., p. 557 ; Bigelow, Amer. Mecl. Bot., ii, p. 171 ; 



