400 



HISTORi' OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



eotic plant are nauseous, and yet it has obtained 

 a more universal popularity than almost any 

 other kind of luxury, not even excepting the 

 famous betel nut of the east. According to Lin- 

 nseus, tobacco was knovyn in Europe from 1660. 

 It was brought to England from Tobago in the 

 West Indies, or Tobasco in Mexico, by Ralph 

 Lane, in 1586 ; but only the herb for smoking. 

 Sir Walter Raleigh is said to have first intro- 

 duced this practice. In the house in wliich he 

 lived at Islington, are his arms on a shield, with 

 a tobacco plant on the top. Smoking has con- 

 sequently been common in Europe for upwards 

 of two centuries. 



Tobacco is a powerful narcotic and stimulant, 

 especially acting on the stomach and intestines, 

 proving both emetic and purgative, and in large 

 doses extinguishing life. The essential oil ap- 

 plied to a wound is said by Redi to prove as ef- 

 fectuallj' fatal as the bite of a viper. The expe- 

 riments of Albjnus do not altogether confirm 

 this however. The oil occasioned vomiting and 

 death wlien given to pigeons. To those persons 

 not accustomed to its daily use, snuff or tobacco, 

 taken in any considerable quantity, produces 

 nausea, vomiting, fainting fits, and even death. 

 Habit, however, has rendered its use grateful as 

 a stimulant, both to the savage and the philoso- 

 pher ; and the longer it is indulged in, the more 

 man becomes a slave to its temporary soothing 

 and exhilarating effects. According to Du Tour, 

 not less than a hundred volumes have been 

 written against it, of which a Gennan has pre- 

 served the titles. Among these works is that of 

 James I. of England, who violently opposed 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 em- 

 peror of the Turks, king of Pei'sia, and Pope 

 Urban "VIII. issued similar prohibitions, all of 

 which were as ridiculous as those which attended 

 the first introduction of coff^ee or Jesuit's bark. 

 At present all the sovereigns of Europe, and 

 most of those of other parts of the world, derive 

 a considerable part of their revenue from to- 

 bacco. 



This plant is cultivated in Europe as far north 

 as Sweden, and is also raised in Cliina, Japan, 

 and other tropical countries. The common to- 

 bacco is the kind principally cultivated. The 

 rustica is reckoned a hardier sort for the climate 

 of Europe. It has been cultivated in various 

 parts of Britain ; but is prohibited, partly to en- 

 courage the American trade, and partly because 

 it is deemed a too exhausting crop for the soil. 

 In Germany, most families who have gardens 

 raise the t. riistica for their own use ; but as 

 they do not know how to manufacture it into 

 snuff or chewing tobacco, it is not much valued. 

 Long, in his history of Jamaica, describes the 

 manner of its cultivation thus : When a regular 



plantation of tobacco is intended, several beds 

 are prepared, well turned up with the hoe. The 

 seed, on account of its smallness, is mixed with 

 ashes, and sown upon them a little before the 

 rainy season. The beds are then raked or 

 trampled with the feet, to make the seed take 

 the sooner. The plant appears in two or three 

 weeks. So soon as they have acquired four 

 leaves, the strongest are drawn up carefully, and 

 planted in the tobacco field by a line, at the dis- 

 tance of about three feet from each plant ; this 

 is done either with a stick or with the finger. 

 If no rain falls, it should be watered two or three 

 times, to make it strike root. Every morning 

 and evening the plants must be surveyed, in 

 order to destroy a worm which sometimes in- 

 vades the bud. When they are grown about 

 four or five inches high, they are to be cleared 

 from weeds and moulded up ; and as soon as 

 they have eight or nine leaves, and are ready 

 to put forth a stalk, the top is nipped off, in 

 order to make the leaves longer and thicker. 

 After this the buds, which sprout at the joints 

 of the leaves, are all plucked, and not a day suf- 

 fered to pass without examining the leaves, to 

 destroy a large caterpillar which is sometimes 

 very destructive to them. When they are fit 

 for cutting, which is known by the brittlenesa 

 of the leaves, they are cut with a knife close to 

 the ground; and after being left to lie there 

 some little time, are carried to the drying shed, 

 or house, where the plants are hung up by pairs, 

 upon lines or ropes stretched across, leaving a 

 space between, that they may not touch one an- 

 other. In this state they remain to sweat and 

 dry. When they become perfectly dry, the 

 leaves are stripped from the stalks and made into 

 small bundles, tied with another leaf. These 

 bundles are laid in heaps, and covered with 

 blaulcets. Care is taken not to overheat them; 

 for which reason the heaps are laid open to the 

 air from time to time, and spread out. This 

 operation is repeated till no more heat is per- 

 ceived in the heaps, and the tobacco is then 

 stored in casks for exportation. 



In the manufacture of tobacco the leaves are 

 first cleansed of any earth or decayed parts; 

 next they are gently moistened v.ith salt and 

 water, or water in which salt, along with other 

 ingredients, has been dissolved, according to the 

 taste of the fabricator. This liquor is called to- 

 bacco sauce. The next operation is to remove 

 the midrib of the leaf; then the leaves are mixed 

 together, in order to render the quality of what- 

 ever may be the final application equal ; next 

 they are cut into pieces with a fixed knife, and 

 crisped or curled before a fire. The succeeding 

 operation is to spin them into cords, or twist 

 them into rolls, by winding them with a kind of 

 miU round a stick. These operations are all per- 

 formed by the grower ; and in this state of rolls 



