12 University of California Publications in Botany [Vol. 5 



even nearly tubular. The corolla of all species of Nicotiana is 

 more or less irregular, being slightly zygomorphous merely in 

 most cases, but in two species of the Rustica-section, viz., N. 

 glutinosa and N. tomentosa, it is decidedly irregular as well as 

 being deeply tinged with red. The flowers are in simple or 

 panicled racemes. Of about sixteen species credited by Comes 

 (1899) to this section, six are commonly cultivated in gardens 

 and are represented in the collections of the U. C. B. G-., together 

 with several fairly distinct varieties. 



Nicotiana rustica L. 



Many varieties and forms of Nicotiana rustica are cultivated 

 and while, perhaps, the variability of the plants included under 

 this name is not quite so great as is the case with those included 

 under N . Tabacum, yet it is certainly very great. Forms of 

 this species were cultivated and used for smoking by the North 

 American Indians from Mexico and Texas north along the west- 

 ern banks of the Mississippi River to Minnesota, eastward 

 to the Atlantic seaboard and north thence to Canada. It was 

 the first tobacco cultivated by the English in Virginia, although 

 it was soon supplanted by varieties of Nicotiana Tabacum 

 brought from northern South America and the West Indies. 

 Its culture spread to Europe, where it is cherished locally as 

 a peasant tobacco, as well as to Asia and to Africa. It is to be 

 expected that many varieties may be found in a species so 

 widely and so long cultivated. Comes (1899, pp. 20-24) has 

 distinguished six varieties, all of which have been grown in the 

 U. C. B. G. from seed kindly furnished by Professor Comes 

 himself. Many sowings of this species of seed from other sources 

 have also been made and the following seven varieties have been 

 selected for further work. 



Nicotiana rustica var. asiatica 



21 

 V. C. B. G. 07. — Nicotiana rustica var. asiatica Schrank 



(1807, p. 264), as interpreted by Comes (1899, p. 22, pi. II, 



XII), is fairly tall, with ample leaves, which are more or less 



heart-shaped, and a spreading panicle. The seed came from Pro- 



