THE PLANT. 21 
that it becometh earthie, that is to say, all turned into earth, 
and not making any shew any more of dung: which is like- 
wise moist and shadowie, wide and roomy, for in a narrow 
and straight place it would not grow high, straight, great and 
well-branched. ; 
“Tt desireth the South sun before it, and a wall behind it, 
which may stand in stead of a broad pair of shoulders to keep 
away the northern wind and to beate backe againe the heat of 
the sun. It groweth the better if it be oft watered, and 
maketh itself sport and jolly good cheer with water when the 
time becometh a little dry. It hateth cold, and therefore to 
keepe it from dying in winter, it must be either kept in cel- 
lars where it may have free benefit of air, or else in some 
cave made on purpose within the same garden, or else to 
cover it as with a cloak very well with a double mat, making 
a penthouse of wicker work from the wall to cover the head 
thereof with straw laid thereupon: and when the southern 
sun shineth, to open the door of the covert made for the said 
herb right upon the said South sun.” 
The most ludicrous part of “The discourse on Nicotian” 
will be found in that portion which relates to the making of 
the plant-bed and transplanting :— 
“For to sow it, you must make a hole in the earth with 
your finger and that as deep as your finger is long, then you 
must cast into the same hole ten or twelve seeds of the said 
Nicotiana together, and fill up the hole again: for it is so | 
small, as that if you should put in but four or five seeds the 
earth would choake it: and if the time be dry, you must 
water the place easily some five days after: And when the 
herb is grown out of the earth, inasmuch as every seed will 
have put up his sprout and stalk, and that the small thready 
roots are intangled the one within the other, you must with 
a great knife make a composs within the earth in the places 
about this plot where they grow and take up the earth and 
all together, and cast them into a bucket full of water, to the 
end that the earth may be seperated, and the small and ten-_ 
der impes swim about the water; and so you shall sunder 
them one after another without breaking of them.” * * 
THE STALK. 
The Tobacco stalk varies with the varieties of the plant. 
All of the species cultivated in the United States have stalks 
of a large size—much larger than many varieties grown in 
