474         OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  SPECIES  OF  NICOTIANA. 
species  cultivated  in  the  interior  of  Africa.  It  is  probably  indi- 
genous to  that  portion  of  the  globe.  An  African,  from  a 
region  in  that  country,  far  distant  from  the  sea,  who  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  cultivation  of  the  plant  in  his  own  country 
as  well  as  in  this,  told  me  when  he  first  3aw  this  species  growing 
in  Georgia,  that  it  was  the  kind  which  grew  in  his  country.  He 
could  not  well  be  mistaken,  for  the  leaves  of  N.  tabacum  are 
very  wide,  whilst  on  the  contrary  of  the  N.  fruticosa  they  are 
rather  narrow.  It  is  from  this  species  that  the  so-called  Havanna 
segars  ought  to  be  made.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  very  little 
of  it  enters  into  the  composition  of  what  we  now  receive  from 
Cuba. 
N.  rustica.  Annual,  villous,  viscid,  branching.-  Leaves 
petiolate,  ovate  or  roundish  obtuse,  most  entire,  sometimes  more 
or  less  cordate,  divisions  of  the  calyx  short,  ovate  or  roundish. 
Corolla  greenish  yellow.    Stigma  entire. 
From  this  species,  which  is  nearly  as  agreeable  for  smoking 
as  the  last,  are  produced  the  varieties  called  Turkish,  Chinese, 
East  Indian,  Shirazian  and  Latakia  tobacco.  It  is  said  to  have 
been  imported  from  America  into  England  in  the  year  1578,  and 
yet  has  never  been  seen  here  except  cultivated  as  a  curiosity  in 
gardens,  the  seed  being  always  brought  from  China.  It  must 
be  considered  as  a  species  confined  originally  to  the  older  conti- 
nents, and  not  known  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  until  after  the 
discoveries  of  Columbus  and  others.  I  think  that  I  have  seen 
it  growing  in  a  quasi  indigenous  state  on  the  road  sides  in 
Europe.  No  tobacco  has  ever  been  seen  growing  without  culti- 
vation in  the  United  States.  This  circumstance  taking  place 
with  most  of  our  cultivated  vegetables  is  a  certain  proof  of  their 
having  been  imported  from  some  other  country. 
As  has  been  observed  before,  these  three  species  will  mix  to- 
gether in  every  possible  degree,  hence  the  great  number  of 
species  which  appear  in  our  books.  If  we  take  the  trouble  to 
analyse  these,  it  can  easily  be  perceived  that  they  have  been 
produced  by  hybrid  intermixtures,  unless  fertile  hybrids  are  to 
be  considered  as  valid  species.  All  those  which  resemble  the 
N.  tabacum,  but  with  narrower  leaves  than  common,  or  in  any 
degree  possessed  of  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  N,  fruticosa, 
have  been  produced  by  the  mixture  with  this  species,  and  all  of 
