Talks About Hardy Perennials 
V. THE WHITE GIANT TOBACCO PLANT 
By W. C. EGAN 
I N the early part of the sixteenth century John 
Nicot, French Ambassador to Portugal, intro¬ 
duced the tobacco plant into his native country 
and also widely declaimed its virtues as a narcotic. 
For these services the plant received his name and 
was called Nicotiana. 
The species cultivated for commercial purposes is 
Nicotiana tabacum, a native. 
The species most grown for ornamental purposes 
is N. alala better known as N. affinis, bearing a long 
tubular shaped white flower, sweet scented towards 
evening. A few years ago an allied form, but bearing 
red flowers, came much heralded under the name 
of N. Sanderce , which caused much dissatisfac¬ 
tion on account of not understanding its require¬ 
ments. 
When grown in full sun the colors of the flowers 
were weak and on hot sunshiny days they closed and 
wilted and looked unhappy, but where planted in 
open, semi-shady situations they stood up well and 
were quite attractive. Since this introduction hy¬ 
brids of it have appeared but in all I have seen, the 
colors are weak and unattractive. 
The more robust species N. glauca, N. tomentosa, 
and N. tabacum, are often grown for sub-tropical 
effect. N. mirabilis alba, here illustrated, is certainly 
a very handsome plant, easily raised from seed, 
in fact self-sown plants often bloom the same season, 
but are comparatively small in stature. They should 
be started in a hotbed and transplanted when danger 
of frost is passed. In good soil (wood-ashes is a 
good stimulant) they will attain a height of six to 
seven feet with large light green leaves occupying a 
diameter of three or more feet. The illustration 
shows them in a situation that does not do them 
justice, they being used temporarily to fill up some 
gaps in a peony bed. It may be interesting to intend¬ 
ing planters if I state how I intend growing them 
next season. 
I have chosen a bay of the lawn bounded on the 
closed in sides by a wooded ravine. The ravine trees 
will form the background and the bed will receive 
full sun up to noon. The bay is much broader 
than deep, and is flanked on both sides, on the border 
of the ravine, with plantings of spring flowering 
bulbs and the early blooming wood phlox, P. divan- 
cata. I shall use a dozen plants of Mirabilis alba, 
planted three feet apart and border them on the 
lawn side with Rudbeckia triloba, also placed three 
feet apart. At the back of the bed, but coming out 
also in between the tobacco plants I have planted 
sixty Virginian cowslips, Mertensia Virgimca, that 
handsome, early blooming, blue-flowered beauty. 
A space one foot in diameter is left for each tobacco 
plant and the Mertensia is then planted in between 
them and about one foot apart. Then in front of 
them and running in between the spaces left and 
between the Rudbeckias are planted eight hundred 
chionodoxas. About on the same line with the 
chionodoxas, to the right, and near the ravine edge is 
a group of some thirty plants of the handsome dwarf 
blue columbine, Aquilegia Helence. On the corre¬ 
sponding side, at the left is a group of the wood 
phlox above mentioned. All of these are planted in 
irregular groups, as informal as possible, but con¬ 
tinuous so as to form mass effect. The Rudbeckias 
THE WHITE GIANT TOBACCO PLANT 
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