ON THE CULTURE OP LATAKIA TOBACCO. 165 



many streams. Protected by the neighbouring mountains from the south 

 and east winds (the driest and most sultry in the East), it lies open to 

 the north and south, which are cooler and more refreshing. From these 

 advantages this district enjoys a considerable vegetation, and a soil very 

 suitable to the production of tobacco. It is cultivated there in consider- 

 able quantities, and transported thence into almost every part of Turkey. 

 On the lower part of Lebanon, on the same side, are the villages of 

 Sebail and Serai, where tobacco is produced that is held in better esti- 

 mation than that of the Koura. 



In the Kesrasan, or as we call it^ Castravan, lies the district of 

 Gebail, from whence comes the best, and, consequently, the dearest, 

 tobacco in Syria. It is very brittle, and its ash is white, unlike that of 

 most other tobaccos, which usually, when smoked, leave a black or dark 

 grey ash. 



The south of Lebanon, like the district of Tripoly, produces only 

 tobacco of very ordinary quality, known as Salili, Tanone, Takibe, and 

 also under the general name of Berraoni. There is very little care be- 

 stowed upon their cultivation, and they are planted in the first bit of 

 soil that comes to hand. These three kinds (which, in fact, are one and 

 the same) are also inferior to the Dgidar. However, tobacco is obtained 

 in the south of Lebanon, of which large quantities are shipped at Sour 

 the ancient Tyre) for Egypt, where it is smoked, after being mixed with 

 a stronger tobacco, in the same manner as the Koura. 



We have said, when on the subject of Latakia, that the best of the 

 Dgebeli tobacco was called Abou-Riha, but it is the Karn-el-Gazel (horn 

 of the gazelle). The plant grows to a height of a little over three feet, 

 its leaves are numerous, very compact, long and narrow. The flower is 

 large and white, but when the plant has arrived at maturity, it takes a 

 purplish tinge. 



The second quality of the Dgebeli is the Bonati. The plant which 

 produces it, grows to a greater height than the Karn-el-Gazel, and the 

 leaves are larger, of an oval shape, and thicker at the sides. 



The Dgidar, I have been informed by creditable authority, is identical 

 with the Nicotiana rustica, and the same class will include all the 

 tobaccos which bear the name of Bezzaoni, and many others of the 

 inferior kinds. 



I have been informed that there is a tobacco in Syria called Ksar, 

 which, as they say, belongs to the second quality, and is very good, 

 but I have never seen it. The provinces of Aleppo and Damascus 

 produce very small quantities of tobacco, neither is much obtained 

 from Palestine. 



