NICOTIANA, 
leaves numerous, large, pointed, entire, veined, vifcid, 
pale green ; flowers in loofe clufters or panicles. Seeds 
very numerous, fmall, ovate, fubreniform, with raifed lines 
or nerves beautifully netted, of a yellowith bay colour. 
Mr. Miller has made three fpecies of the Virginian to¬ 
bacco. 
cs. N. latifflma, the great broad-leaved, or Oronoko; 
which he fays was formerly the molt commonly fown in 
England, and has been generally taken for the common 
broad-leaved tobacco of Cafpar Bauhin and others, but 
is very different from it. The leaves are more than a foot 
and a half long, and a foot broad; their furfaces very rough 
and glutinous, and their bates half embrace the ftalk. In 
a rich moift foil the ftalks are more than ten feet high, 
and the upper part divides into fmaller branches, which 
are terminated by loofe bunches of flowers, Handing ereCt : 
they have pretty long tubes, and are of a pale purplifh 
colour. It flowers in July and Auguft, and the feeds 
ripen in autumn. This is the fort which is commonly 
brought to market in pots. 
( 3 . N. tabacum, broad-leaved, or fweet-fcented. The 
Ilalks of this, which is the broad-leaved tobacco of Cafpar 
Bauhin, feldom rife more than five or fix feet high, and 
divide into more branches. The leaves are about ten 
inches long, and three and a half broad, fmooth, acute, 
feflile; the flowers are rather larger, and of a brighter 
purple colour. It flowers and perfects ieeds at the lame 
time. 
y. N. anguftifolia, or narrow-leaved Virginian tobacco ; 
riles with an upright branching ftalk, four or five feet high. 
The lower leaves are a foot long, and three or four inches 
broad: thofeon the ftalks are much narrower, lefl'ening 
to the top, and end in very acute points, fitting dole to 
the ftalks; they are very glutinous. The flowers grow in 
loofe bunches at the top of the ftalks; they have long 
tubes, and are of a bright purple or red colour. They 
appear at the fame time with the former, and their feeds 
ripen in the autumn. 
Thel'e are all natives of America. Tobacco was culti¬ 
vated in England before 1570, as appears from Lobel. 
According to Linna:us,it was known in Europe from 1560. 
Hernandez de Toledo is laid to have fent it into Spain 
and Portugal, when Nicot, being refident in the latter 
from the molt Chriftian king Francis II. lent it to Catha¬ 
rine de Medicis, as a plant of the new world, pofleffing 
extraordinary virtues. Gefner, in his Epiftolae medici- 
nales, fol. 79, dated Nov. 5, 1565, relates fome trials which 
he made on it; and adds, “a'Gallis Nicotianam vocari 
audio, nomine legati cujufdam qui Galliae intulerit, ab 
aliis Pontianam.” He had then only learnt from Thevet 
that it was ufed in America for fmoking. Sir William 
Bilker in his Chronicle, (p. 400, ed. 9, 1696,) affirms that 
tobacco was brought into England from the Weft Indies 
by Ralph Lane, in-the 2.8th year of queen Elizabeth, 1586. 
But this account mull be underftood of fmoking the herb ; 
or elfe it is inconfiftent with the cultivation of it in 1570, 
as related by Lobel. Hakluyt, in his Remembrances 
made in the year 1582, fays, that “ the feed of tobacco 
hath been brought hither out of the Weft Indies, that it 
groweth here, and with the herb many have been eafed of 
the rewmes, See." 
Tobacco it is well known is of a narcotic quality, 
which it generally difeovers, even in fmall quantity, 
when firft applied. A very little of it, fnuffed up the note, 
will fometimes producegiddinefs, ftupor, and vomiting; 
and, when applied in different ways, in larger quantity, 
there are many inftances of its more violent effects, even 
of its proving a mortal poifon. In all thefe inftances it 
operates in the manner of other narcotics : but along with 
its narcotic qualities it poffeffes alfo a ltrongly ftiniulant 
power, perhaps with refpeCl to the whole fyftem, but ef- 
pecially with refpeft to the ftomach and inteftines; fo as 
readily, even in no great doles, to prove emetic and put¬ 
ative. The practices of taking tobacco in fnuff, by lino- 
ing, and chewing, have now been common in Europe 
3 
above two hundred years. Like other narcotics, the fef® 
of it may be introduced by degrees, fo that its peculiar 
effeCts, even from large quantities, may fcarcely appeal 1 : 
it has however its limits, fo that in perfons who have been 
long in the habit of taking it, going only a little beyond 
the dofe to which they had been accuftomed, very violent 
effefts are fometimes produced. The effects of the diffe¬ 
rent modes of thus uling tobacco depend chiefly upon its 
narcotic power, and certain circumftances accidentally 
attending its application to the nofe and mouth. But, on 
account of its llimulating quality, it is fometimes em¬ 
ployed, chiefly by the vulgar, to excite vomiting, but 
more commonly as a purgative in clyfters, or by throwing 
the fmoke up the anus. Externally an infufion of to¬ 
bacco-leaves has been ufed with advantage as a lotion for 
obllinate ulcers; but many inftances of its having been 
abforbed and proving a violent poifon, diffuade from fuch 
a practice, efpecially as there are other medicines of 
equal efficacy, that may be employed with much more 
fafety. Bergius recommends it for a fomentation in the 
paraphymolis. The fmoke has been fuccefsfully ufed in 
the way of injection, for obftrudtions and inveterate con- 
ftipations of the belly, ever fince the time of Sydenham, 
and is alfo recommended in cafes of fufpended animation. 
Refpe&ing its poifonous effects, in the Ephern. Nat. Cur. 
(dec. 2. ann. 10.) we are told, that, by the imnioderateufe 
of fnuff, fomnolency, and at length fatal apoplexy, was 
induced. Hell wig gives two inftances of the fame kind, 
occafioned by fmoking feventeen or eighteen pipes of to¬ 
bacco. Its effects by ablorption from external u(e may 
be teen in the fame Ephemerides (ann. 2. Sc 4.) and in 
Alfton’s Materia Medica. The oil of tobacco applied 
to a wound, is faid by Redi to be as fatal as the poifon of 
a viper. Albinus however did not find that this was the 
cafe with the animals on which he tried the experiment. 
This oil, given to pigeons, produced fatal effects, and 
was conllantly attended with vomiting. 
3. Nicotiana undulata, or New Holland tobacco : ra¬ 
dical leaves obovate, cbtufe, fomewhat wavy; ftem-leavee 
ftiarp-pointed ; corolla falver-fliaped, very obtufe. Na¬ 
tive of New South Wales, as well as of the fouthern part 
of New Holland. It came to Kew in 1800, and is peren¬ 
nial in the green-houle, flowering all fummer long. The 
fettlers at Port Jackfon are faid to ufe this herb as tobacco. 
It is downy, vifcid, and feetid. Leaves and whole herb 
much fmaller than in the Virginian tobacco. Flowers ra- 
cemofe, drooping, large, white, with a green tube; fra¬ 
grant at night, like the Mirabilis longiflora. 
4. Nicotiana plumbaginifoiia, or leadwort-leaved to¬ 
bacco : radical leaves ovate, contradledat the bafe ; ftem- 
leaves lanceolate, clafping the Hem ; all undulated ; co¬ 
rolla falver-ffiaped, acute. The native country of this 
fpecies is unknown. It has been cultivated in fome Ita¬ 
lian gardens ; and there were flowering fpecimens, in May 
1804, in the Hove of the late lady Amelia Hume. The 
Item is much branched from the very bottom. Leaves 
broader than in the laft, with which fpecies, the flowers 
1110ft agree in colour, fize, and arrangement, but differ 
eflentially in the acutenefs of their fegments: the calyx 
alfo is wider. 
5. Nicotiana axillaris, or axillary tobacco : leaves op- 
poiite, ovate, flat, nearly feflile ; ftalks axillary, folitary, 
tingle-flowered ; corolla obtufe ; fegments of the calyx 
deep, lpatulate. Gathered by Commerfon at Monte 
Video, and communicated by Thouin to the younger 
Liniueus. Leaves rather above an inch long, and near 
an inch wide, downy, and apparently vifcid, like the reft: 
of the herbage. Fruit unknown. It is evident that fome 
uncertainty mull attend the genus of this plant, till the 
whole of the fructification is known. 
6. Nicotiana triftis, or dull-purple tobacco: leaves 
lanceolate, wavy, clafping the ftem ; corolla falver-fliaped, 
its tube not twice the length of the calyx, and fcarcely 
longer than the obtufe limb. Gathered by Commerfon 
at Monte Video. The whole herb is vifcid and downy. 
Stem 
