TYPES OF CUBAN TOBACCO 
HEINRICH HASSELBRING 
(WITH PLATES Iv—X) 
One of the most persistent ideas in evolutionary writings which 
deal with cultivated plants is that transferring a plant from one 
region to an entirely different one, or from one environment to 
another, is accompanied by unprecedented variability during the 
first season of growth after the transfer. The phenomenon is 
generally described as ‘‘breaking up of the type.” 
When Cuban tobacco seed is grown in the United States, the 
crop produced is not uniform, but consists of a mixture of many 
different forms. SHAMEL,’ who has made extensive experiments 
with the introduction of Cuban tobacco into the United States, 
describes this phenomenon and attributes the appearance of a 
diversity of forms from the imported seed to the variability induced 
by the new environment. Regarding the variability of plants from 
seed imported from Cuba and i SHAMEL = Rigen baa 
The plants grown from this freshly i 1seed brol 
types. This breaking up of type is due to the effect a the change Keak sca 
and climatic conditions, resulting in striking variation in the plants grown 
from the imported seed. The variation is particularly marked where southern 
seed is taken to northern tobacco districts. 
Similar views are expressed in the older literature. Thus Lock,’ 
speaking of the importation of Havana tobaccos into other 
countries, says: 
There is no great difficulty in raising plants of these varieties, but they 
speedily degenerate and form new varieties, if the climatic conditions, etc., are 
not favourable. 
*Suamet, A. D., The improvement of tobacco by breeding and selection. U.S. 
Dept. Agr. Yearbook 1904: 435-452. pls. 7. figs. 2.. 
?SHaMEL, A. D., and Cosry, W. W., Varieties of tobacco seed distributed in 
Pager with caries! directions. U.S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Ind. Bull. 91. pp. 38. 
pls. 9. 
3 ne C. G. W., Tobacco: growing, curing, and manufacturing. London. 
1886. pp. 32. 
113] [Botanical Gazette, vol. 53 
