668 



almost exclusively American, and the greater 

 number of the species appeared to me to belong 

 to the mountainous and temperate region of the 

 tropics. 



It is neither from Virginia, nor from South 

 America, as it is said erroneously in several agri- 

 cultural and botanical works, but from the Mexi- 

 can province of Yucatan, that Europe received 

 the first tobacco seeds, about the year 1559*. 

 The man who has boasted most of the fecundity 

 of the banks of the Oroonoko, the celebrated 

 Raleigh, contributed most also to introduce the 

 custom of smoking among the nations of the 

 north. Already, at the end of the 16th century, 

 bitter complaints were made in England ( f of 

 this imitation of the manners of a savage peo- 

 ple." It was feared, that by the practice of 

 smoking tobacco Anglorum corpora in barbaro- 

 rum naturam degenerent*f. 



* The Spaniards became acquainted with tobacco in the 

 West India islands at the end of the 15th century. I have 

 remarked above (vol. iii, p. 62.), that the cultivation of this 

 narcotic plant preceded the beneficent cultivation of the 

 potato in Europe more than 120 or 140 years. When Ra- 

 leigh brought tobacco from Virginia to England in 1586., 

 whole fields of it were already cultivated in Portugal. 



f This remarkable passage of Camden is as follows, An- 

 nul Elizabet., p. 143 (1585); " ex illo sane tempore (taba- 

 cum) usu cepit esse cveberrimo in Anglia et maguo pretio 

 dum quamplurimi graveolentem illius fumum per tubulum 

 testa'ceum hauriurit et rnox e naribus efflant, adeo ut Anglo- 



