781 
i’ROPAGATION of TLA TSTS. 
he^ds thi# .p|9.Ht tliiere been i’ouute<i tbirteeo tliousand eight 
byndp^d and twentyrfour seeds. Now, alotting to a root of this 
jilaint eight branches, and to each branch six heads, which appears to 
have been a very moderate compulation, the produce of one seed is 
' Gx 13824— 82P44, and 8X8*2944, gives 603,552 seeds, as the annual 
produce of one seed, and that so small, that thirteen thousand eight, 
hundred and twenty-four of them are contained in a capsule, whose 
length i$ but one- ninth of an inch, its diameter but one twenty-third 
of an in^h, and its weight but the thirteenth part of a grain. 
Tobacco. 
Thi^RE is nothing more astonishing in the history of the human 
mind, than that unaccountable sort of prejudice which some people 
evince at the introduction of any thing to which they have not been 
accustomed, be the thing ever so good or advantageous. This kind 
of feeling occasioned it to be debated, on first adopting the use of 
poitatoes, whether they were really fit for food, or were not rather a 
\egetabi^ poison ; it occasioned the resistance of small-pox inocula- 
tion, years ago, and of the vaccine in the present day, “ as flying in 
the faee of God,” to adopt a phrase of some old ladies, as great fata- 
Hfstsp in these matters as the Tiarks ; but it is in no instance more strik- 
exhibited than in that of the first bringing of tobacco into this 
country. Who would have thought that a king of England, two centu- 
ries hack, and that one of the poorest and neediest of our monarchs, 
wtQuId have written a book in the bitterest style of invective, expressly to 
hinder the use of a commodity, the duties on which now yield to the 
state mere than the amount of his whole revenue, Not but we believe, 
could his majesty have been sensible of what it might have been made 
to produce, such was his love or want of money, he would have spo- 
ken of it in more moderate terms than he has done in. the following 
extract. The king we allude to is James I. who in his Counter-blast 
to Tobacco,” says, — - 
“That it is not only a common herbe, which, though under divers 
namesjis almost every where, but was first found out by the barbarous 
Indians;” and asks his good countrymen to consider what honours 
or policy can move them to imitate the manners of such wild, godlesse, 
and slavish people? He proceeds It is not long since the first 
entry of this abuse amongst ns here, as this present age can very 
well r^momber both the first author and forms of its introduction, 
and now many in this kingdome have had such a continual use of fhis 
onsavoiirie smoke, that they are not able to forbeare the same, no 
more than an old drunkard can abide to be long sober.. How save-* 
¥al are by this eustome disabled, in their goods, let the gentrie of this 
lanid l^ar witnesse ; some of whom bestow 300!. some 4001, a year 
on thi# precious stinke. And is it not great, vanitie and uncleannesse, 
that at the table, a place of respect, men should sit tossing of tobac- 
co pipes, and smoking of tobacco, one to another, making; the filthy 
stinke thereof to exhale across the dishes, and infect the wine ; but 
HOi other tii^e nor action is exempted from the public use of this uuci- 
vU tikhc^loif 4 man. cannot hardly welcome his friends at his home. 
