472        OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  SPECIES  OF  NICOTIANA. 
bright  yellow  color.  The  best  tobacco  for  smoking  comes  to  us 
from  the  tropics,  possessed  of  a  peculiar  flavor  and  perfume  ; 
this  was  once  the  case  with  all  the  segars  brought  from  Cuba. 
At  present,  those  that  are  introduced  into  the  United  States 
from  that  island  are  adulterated  with  tobacco  of  an  inferior 
kind  ;  they  are  not  at  all  like  those  brought  fifty  years  ago. 
Either  the  plant  has  deteriorated  by  mixing  with  other  species, 
or  is  so  adulterated  by  a  mixture  with  the  common  tobacco  of 
our  country,  that  the  true  flavor  is  entirely  lost.  Vessels  loaded 
with  tobacco,  the  produce  of  our  own  soil,  are  constantly  leaving 
our  shores  for  the  port  of  Havanna.  Besides,  large  quantities 
of  an  inferior  quality  produced  from  imported  seed  are  now  sent 
from  New  England,  and  either  used  there  or  brought  back  and 
sold  here  as  genuine  Havanna.  The  last  good  tobacco  that  I 
have  smoked  was  made  by  myself  in  Georgia,  about  thirty  years 
ago.  This  possessed  the  delightful  perfume  peculiar  to  the  best 
raised  within  the  tropics  ;  it  was  at  the  same  time  very  mild  and 
burnt  freely.  There  is,  however,  much  imagination  in  the  judg- 
ment which  we  form  of  tobacco. 
I  might  here  point  out  the  method  by  which  deleterious  sub- 
stances are  mixed  with  tobacco,  and  how  the  leaves  of  various 
other  plants  are  substituted  for  it.  Some  of  the  most  exten- 
sively used  manufactured  tobacco  has  poisonous  drugs  mixed 
with  it,  which  increases  its  action  on  the  system,  particularly  on 
the  brain,  in  such  a  degree  as  to  become  really  dangerous. 
Those  persons,  therefore,  who  use  it  for  a  masticatory,  would  do 
well  to  employ  no  other  than  the  pure  leaves  as  they  are  brought 
from  Virginia.  Almost  all  the  pressed  tobacco  is  defiled  with 
liquorice  or  molasses,  which  substances  conceal  the  bad  taste  of 
the  inferior  qualities.  The  method  by  which  the  flavor  of  our 
plant  is  imparted  to  plants  which  have  none  of  their  own  is  as 
follows: — A  quantity  of  the  refuse  tobacco  is  boiled  in  wine,  or 
more  frequently  in  human  urine,  until  a  strong  fluid  extract  is 
obtained ;  to  this  some  salt  is  added.  It  is  then  poured  upon 
the  dried  leaves  of  other  plants,  such  as  rhubarb,  burdock,  sun- 
flower, cabbage,  or  broad-leaved  dock,  which,  after  remaining  in 
the  fluid  a  sufficient  time  to  absorb  as  much  of  it  as  they  can 
contain,  are  hung  up  to  dry,  and  then  made  into  Havanna 
segars.    Cut  tobacco,  likewise  intended  for  smoking,  is  mixed 
