1S3C] Boyle's Botany, fyc. of the Himalayas and Cashmere. 413 



in proportion to its rarefaction ; this, with coolness, will also produce 

 dryness, which favours evaporation from the surface of leaves. Mr. 

 Loudon has succinctly stated the requisites for obtaining good tobacco. 

 * In hot, dry, and short summers, the tobacco is small, but of delicate 

 quality and fine flavour ; in long moist and not very warm summers, 

 it will grow large, but be without that fine flavour, which can only be 

 given by abundance of clear sun-shine and free dry air. In the north 

 of Germany, he adds, a good wine year, which depends on warmth 

 and dryness, is always a good tobacco year and it may be inferred, 

 that the combination of heat with moisture, will, in this, as in other 

 plants to which it is not fatal, produce great extension of the parts 

 of vegetation with coarseness of fibre, perhaps also of flavour. 



" Tobacco has been introduced into the Old World, and produced of 

 such excellent quality, over so wide an extent of latitude, as to prove 

 that in properly selected sites, and with the care bestowed on it in 

 America, it may be grown of as fine quality in many parts of the Old 

 Continent. Thus we find it cultivated in the islands of the Indian 

 Archipelago and in Java. Manilla has long been celebrated for its 

 tobacco; Niebuhr describes it as very fine; many smokers prefer 

 Manilla cheroots to any other. Here the climate, though the Philips 

 pines are situated under the Line, is described as excellent, in conse- 

 quence of the height of the mountains, and the regularity of the sea 

 breezes. 



" The next tobacco which has obtained a European reputation, is that 

 of Darabjird in Fars : of this locality it is sufficient to state, that it is 

 in the neighbourhood of Shiraz, in 30° of N. latitude, and situated on 

 the table-land of Persia; that the climate, though hot, is dry, and as 

 celebrated for its wine as for its tobacco. This has been ascertained 

 by Dr. Lindley to be the produce of his N. persica (Bot. Mag. t. 1592); 

 but whether it be a native of Persia is less certain, as the Persians have 

 no other name for it than tumbahoo ; and the careful culture and cure 

 make one suspect that it was introduced by the Portuguese when in 

 possession of Ormuz. Still further north, the tobacco commonly called 

 Turkish, produced by N. rustica, and grown on the coasts of the Medi- 

 terranean, is highly valued. But the Dutch, which is compared to the 

 Maryland, and like it grown in the highest latitudes, is also much 

 esteemed, chiefly owing to its careful culture and preparation ; for the 

 tobacco of the south of France is intrinsically better, but less carefully- 

 prepared (Loudon). It is lamentable to exclude India entirely from 

 this enumeration; but whether this be owing to a defect of climate or 

 of culture, is not yet apparent ; or whether in consequence of the large 

 consumption of what is good, the inferior kinds only find their way to 

 the export market : but there is no doubt that East India tobacco holds 

 the lowest place in the English market, and is described as being too 



