NICOTIANA TABACUM. VIRGINIAN TOBACCO. 
Class PENTANDRIA.- Order MONOGYNIA. Natural Order SOLANE^E. 
NIGHT-SHADE TRIBE. 
One of the most powerful narcotics, and one of the most important plants of this group, in a commercial 
point of view, is the Tobacco. There are about thirty species of Nicotiana, and some of these are natives, 
or naturalized in most parts of the world ; for although its use was known in Europe before the discovery 
of America, indulgence in its fume is so common, nay, so universal among the Chinese, and the forms 
of their bamboo pipes, and their methods of inhaling so peculiar, that Pallas and many others had been 
led to believe that the custom is aboriginal with them ; and that they, and other nations of the east, were 
acquainted with its use before the discovery of the Western Hemisphere. Two or more species. 
Chardin states, that its use was common in Persia long before the discovery of America, and that it 
is a native of that country, or at least was naturalized there as early as 1260; furthermore, Liebault 
asserts, that one species (his “ Petit Tabac Sauvage,”) is a native of Europe ; and that it was found wild 
in the forest of Ardennes, previous to the discovery of the New World ; this assertion, seems, however, 
to be deficient in proof, and its correctness is doubted by most naturalists. 
All the species of Nicotiana possess the same, or nearly similar properties ; but two only, N. Taba- 
cum, and N. Rustica, are in much repute, or are much cultivated for use. The specific name Tabacum is 
not, as was long supposed, a slight corruption of Tobago or Tobasco, whence the drug is brought, but is, 
as Humboldt has shewn, the Haytian word for the pipe, in which it is smoked, and which has been 
transferred, like the term mate, [§1928] from the instrument to the herb. 
The history of Tobacco is one of peculiar interest; it was first introduced into Europe about 1560, 
seeds being sent by Jean Nicot, from whom it derives its generic name, to Catherine de Medici ; but it 
was not until 1586, that the use of the herb became generally known, and the practice of smoking in- 
troduced into England by Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Settlers who returned from Virginia. Harriott, 
who accompanied the expedition which was sent out to attempt to found a colony in Virginia, gives, with 
a long description of the Tobacco plant, an account of the manner in which it was used by the native 
Americans ; and adds that the English, during the time of their stay abroad, and since their return home, 
were accustomed to smoke it after the fashion of the Indians, “ and found many rare and wonderful ex- 
periments of the virtue thereof.” 
Tobacco encountered much violent opposition when its half-inebriating and soothing influence re- 
commended it to popular use. Many governments attempted to restrain its consumption by penal 
edicts. The Sultan Amurath IV. forbade its importation into Turkey, and condemned to death those 
found guilty of smoking. The Grand Duke of Moscow prohibited its entrance into his dominions, under 
pain of the knout for the first offence, and death for the next ; and in other parts of Russia the practice 
of smoking was denounced, and all smokers condemned'to have their noses cut off ; the Shah of Persia 
and other Sovereigns were equally severe in their enactments ; and Pope Urban VIII. anathematized all 
those who smoke in churches. In 1654 the counsel of one of the Swiss Cantons cited all smokers before 
them ; every innkeeper was ordered to inform against those who were found smoking in their houses ; 
and in the laws of Bern there is conclusive evidence of the serious light in which this, at that time pre- 
sumed crime, was held, for the prohibition of smoking immediately follows the enactment against adultery. 
But not only legislators, but philosophers, or at least book-makers, entered into a crusade against To- 
bacco ; upwards of a hundred volumes, the names of which have been preserved, and the titles catalogued, 
were written to condemn its use ; and amongst these, not the least singular was the counterblaste of our 
pedantic James. His vituperations indeed are most amusing ; and although in some parts the language is 
too gross for modern taste, its tenor may be judged of from the following quotations. 
“Now to the corrupted basenesse of the first use of this Tobacco, doeth very well agree the foolish 
and groundlesse first entry thereof into this kingdome ; it was neither brought in by king, great conqueror, 
nor learned doctor of physicke. With the reporte of a great discovery for a conqueste, some two or three 
savage men were brought in, together with this savage custom, but the pitye is, the poore wild barbarous 
