NICOTIANA TABACUM. 
197 
to the most delicate rose colour,* opening like a cup, and havings 
five divisions, equally short, and pointed ; the filaments the length 
of the corolla, seated close to the stigma before fecundation, forming 
a kind of crown, but receding when this organ has been fecundated ; 
they are surmounted by oblong, compressed anthers; germen oval, 
supporting a long slender style, terminated by a roundish, bilobed 
stigma ; capsule ovate, conical, grooved with four streaks, with two 
cells, opening at the top in four parts, corresponding with the 
grooves, and containing a great number of small kidney-shaped seeds. 
Its time of flowering varies according to the climate it grows in ; 
in its native soil it flowers about July, but with us it is somewhat 
later, and continues in blossom until late in September. 
Sensible Properties. Every part of this plant is clammy 
and foetid ; its other sensible properties, so far as regards smell, 
taste, &c. are so universally known as to render any description here 
unnecessary. We need only remark that its taste is much more 
acrid, and its smell more pungent in the dry than in the recent 
state. 
Chemical Properties. The active constituent of tobacco is 
an essential oil, for by long boiling, the decoction and extract 
become almost inert; by distillation an oil is obtained so active, 
that small animals are almost immediately killed by being wounded 
with a needle dipped in it. Vauquelin has also discovered a peculiar 
acrid volatile principle, to which he has given the name of Nicotin ; 
it is soluble both in water and alcohol, has the peculiar smell of 
tobacco, and acts powerfully as a sternutatory. Besides these, 
tobacco contains albumen, mucilage, extractive matter, and a 
bitter principle. 
Deleterious Effects of Tobacco. Orfila classes this 
plant among the Narcotico-Acrid Poisons, and gives a number of 
experiments made with it upon dogs and other animals; from these 
it appears, that whether introduced into the stomach (in the form of 
snuff) or applied to the cellular texture, it proved equally fatal. 
The two following experiments were made by Dr. Macartney, of 
Trinity College, Dublin ; a few drops of the essential oil of tobacco 
were applied upon the surface of the encephalon of a rabbit, after 
the upper part of the cranium and a portion of the brain had been 
raised, half an hour after the animal had not experienced any re- 
* We have seen a beautiful variety of this plant, in which the whole of the corolla 
was of a bright pink. — Ed. 
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