APPENDIX. 195 
and the leaves in dropsy. Both leaves and flowers are used 
in compounding ointments and poultices. 
Tobacco. Nicotiana tabacum. 
Tobacco was imported into Spain and Portugal from 
America, by Hernandez de Toledo, about the middle of the 
sixteenth century. Nicot, who was ambassador of France 
at Lisbon, carried it to Catherine de Medicis, in 1560, as a 
plant possessing wonderful virtues. The generic name was 
given in his honor; and the English name, tobacco, is either 
from Tobago in the West Indies, or Tobasco in Mexico, 
or, as one authority says, from a South American word for a 
pipe. In spite of the hundred or more volumes written 
against its use, smoking, and, we regret to say, chewing, are 
still practised, though snuff-taking seems to have gone out of 
fashion, except with a few old women. 
Burnett says, “It is supposed that the ‘juice of cursed 
hebenon,’ by which, according to Shakspeare, the king of 
Denmark was poisoned, was the essential oil of tobacco.” 
Iiebenon undoubtedly meant henbane, and as our author con¬ 
tinues, “ it appears from Gerarde that tobacco was commonly 
called ‘henbane of Peru.’ No preparation of hyoscyamus 
with which we are acquainted, would produce death by an 
application to the ear; whereas the essential oil of tobacco 
might without doubt occasion a fatal result.” 
Trumpet Flower. Bignonia raclicans. 
The elegant climbing plant which produces this brilliant 
flower is the pride of southern gardens, though rarely seen 
at the north. The name Bignonia is in honor of the Abbe 
Bignon. 
