N I C 
no fewer than 300 churches, Greek and Latin, and a num¬ 
ber of palaces and public buildings. The city of Nico- 
iia, and a great part of the kingdom, was, in the fifteenth 
century, in the hands of the Saracens. The king ot Cy¬ 
prus was carried prifoner to Egypt; and, though his 
liberty and crown were reftored to him, he remained tri¬ 
butary to the conqueror. The Porte having afterwards 
triumphed over the fultan, the king of Cyprus ceafed to 
pay tribute to the fovereign of Egypt, but only to make 
the fame acknowledgment to the grand fignior; and this he 
continued to do till the ifiand was taken by the Venetians. 
From the time of Conftantine the Great till this 
event, which happened in the year 1567, the circum¬ 
ference of this city was nine miles ; but the Venetians 
found it too extenfive, and reduced it to three, becaufe 
they thought that this would render the conqueft of 
it lefs eafy. They fortified it alfo with eleven baftions 
and three gates; all the reft they razed to the foundation, 
nothing was refpefted : they even demolilhed temples, 
palaces, and the raoft beautiful monuments; and the 
gloomy policy of thefe people loon reduced it to a heap 
of ruins. Notwithftanding thefe precautions, the year 
1570 was fatal to the city of Nicoiia, and to the whole 
ifiand. Selim II. who then ruled the Ottoman empire, 
projefted the conqueft of Cyprus. In the month of June, 
of the fame year, Muftapha, the Turkilh general, entered 
it at the head of 100,000 infantry and 10,000 horfe. The 
neighbourhood of Nicofia was laid wafte with fire and 
fword; and, on the 26th of July, a memorable fiege was 
commenced, which continued forty-five days; at length, 
reduced to the greateft extremity, the city was taken by a 
general'aflault, on Sunday, the 9th of September. Of 
50,000 people who had retired within the walls for fhelter, 
20,000 were maflacred, and the reft put in irons. When 
the city was taken, they found in it 250 pieces of cannon. 
It is now the refidence of the governor, as it formerly was 
of the kings of Cyprus ; but the palaces of the fovereigns, 
remarkable for the beauty of their architefture, are aban¬ 
doned by the Turks to deftruftion. The fuperb church 
of Santa Sofia, in which the Chriftian kings were crowned, 
has been converted into a mofque ; and the habitation of 
thefe fovereigns, partly demoliftied, and partly re-edified 
in the eaftern tafte, is the refidence of the modem, or go¬ 
vernor. The fituation of the town is agreeable ; ftreams 
are here abundant; and it is furrounded byline gardens. 
The adjacent foil is excellent; and, cultivated by the in- 
duftry and activity of freemen, would refume the afpedl 
of profperity. Befides the church of St. Sophia, already 
mentioned, it had another church, viz. that of St. Nicho¬ 
las, which is now a bezcjlen, or a kind of hall, in which 
the principal Turkilh, Greek, and Armenian, merchants 
^flemble to tranfaft commercial bufinefs. The hazin', or 
market-place,is extenfive, much frequented, well fupplied 
with provifions, and kept in a neat and clean ftate. Lat. 
35. 12. N. Ion. 33. 2. E. 
NICO'T (John), lord of Villemain, and.mafter of 
requefts of the French king's houfehold, was born at Nil- 
ynes, and was fent ambaflador to Portugal in 1559; whence 
lie brought the plant which, from his name, was called 
Nicotiana, but is now more generally known by the name 
of tobacco. Hedied at Paris in 1603. He wrote a French 
and Latin Dictionary in folio; a Treatile on Navigation ; 
and other works. 
NICOT'ERA, a town of Naples, in Calabria Ultra, 
the fee of a biftiop, fuffragan of Reggio, near the coaft of 
the Mediterranean : thirty-two miles north-north-eaft of 
Reggio. Lat 38. 33. N. Ion. 16.16. E. 
NICO'TIAN, f. [from Nicot .] Tobacco. See Nico- 
tiana. —Your nicotian is good too. B. JoufoiCs Evcnj 
Man in bis Humour. 
NICO'TIAN, ndj. Denoting tobacco.—This gourmand 
facrifices wholehetacombs to his paunch, and whiffs him- 
felf away in nicotian incenle to the idol of his vain intem¬ 
perance. Bp. Halt. 
NICOTIA'NA,/ [received its name in honour of 
VoL.XVIl. No. xiCa. 
NIC 73 
John Nicot, of Nifmes,who, during his refidence at Lilbon 
in 1560, received fome of the feed from a Dutchman, who 
had it from Florida, and part of this he fent to France.] 
Tobacco; in botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, 
order monogynia, natural order of luridae, (lolaneas, 
Jujf.) Generic characters—Calyx: perianthium one- 
leafed, ovate, half five-cleft, permanent. Corolla: one- 
petalled, funnel-form; tube longer than the calyx ; bor¬ 
der fomewhat fpreading, half five-cleft, in five folds. 
Stamina : filaments five, awl-fhaped, almoft the length of 
the corolla, afcending; antherae oblong. Piftillum : germ 
ovate ; ftyie filiform, the length of the corolla 5 ftigma 
capitate, emarginate. Pericarpiurn: capfule fubovate, 
marked with a line on each fide, two-celled, two-valved, 
opening at top; receptacles half-ovate, dotted, faftened 
to the partition. Seeds numerous, kidney-form, wrinkled. 
—Effential Character. Corolla funnel-form, with a plai¬ 
ted border; ftamina inclined; capfule two-valved, two- 
celled. 
1. Nicotiana fruticofa, or fltrubby tobacco: leaves lan¬ 
ceolate, fubpetioled, embracing ; flowers acute, item fru- 
tefcent. This rifes with very branching ftalks about five 
feet high. Lower leaves afoot and a half long, broad at 
the bale, where they half embrace the ftalks, and about 
three inches broad in the middle, terminating in long 
acute points. The ftalks divide into many linaller branches, 
terminated by loofe bunches of flowers of a bright purple 
colour, fucceeded by acute-pointed feed-veflels. The 
feeds werefent to Mr. Miller For Brafil tobacco. Linnaeus 
obferves, that it refembles N. tabacum fo much, as to 
give room to fuppofe, that it is fcarcely any thing more 
than a variety of it, with a permanent bale. He fets it 
down as a native of the Cape of Good Hope and of China. 
It is probably not indigenous of the former. In the lat¬ 
ter and in Cochin-china it is cultivated every-where ; ac¬ 
cording to Loureiro, it has its proper vernacular names, 
and is regarded as indigenous. It was cultivated here in 
1699, by the duchefs of Beaufort, according to theKew 
Catalogue. Sir George Staunton informs us, that great 
quantities of tobacco are planted in the low grounds of 
China, through which the embafly palled; and that there 
is no traditional account of its being introduced into that 
country, or into India, where it islikewife cultivated and 
ufed in vaft abundance. In neither country are foreign 
ulages fuddenly adopted. It is pollible, that, like the 
ginfeng, it may be naturally found in particular fpots, 
both in the old and new world. Mieuhoff (in 1662) fays, 
that the weed called tobako by the Malayans and Javanefe 
after the Portuguefe, grows in all parts of the Indies. 
We are not told whether the plant cultivated in the eaft 
is ihrubby or herbaceous ; but NieuhofFinforms us, that 
about Batavia it grows to the height of eight feet, with 
leaves of eighteen inches long and eight broad; and 
Loureiro delcribes the Item as four feet high, fomewhat 
Ihrubby, thick, round, white, hairy, upright, branched. 
Leaves broad-lanceolate, quite entire, waved, wrinkled, 
foft, juicy, fubfeflile, half-embracing, alternate. Flowers 
whitifti red, on upright terminating racemes. Border of 
the corolla fpreading, with the fegments acute. 
fi. N. alba, or white-flowered tobacco. This rifes about 
five feet high: the lialk does not branch fo much as that 
of the former. The leaves are large and oval, about fif¬ 
teen inches long and two broad in the middle, but dimi- 
nilh gradually in fize to the top of the {talk, and with 
their bafe half embrace it. The flowers grow in clofer 
bunches than thole of the former, and are white: they 
are fucceeded by (hort oval obtufe feed-veflels. It flowers 
and perfefts feeds about the fame time with the former. 
It grows naturally in the woods of the ifiand of Tobago, 
whence the feeds were fent to Mr. Philip Miller by Mr. 
Robert Millar. 
2. Nicotiana Tabacum, or Virginian tobacco: leaves 
lanceolate-ovate feflile decurrent, flowers acute. Virgi¬ 
nian tobacco hasaiarge, long, annual root; an upright, 
itrong, round, hairy ftalk, branching towards the top; 
U leave* 
