TOADFLAX. 
annuals ; a few are more or less tender, and all 
the rest are quite hardy; a few have a height of 
from 2 to 5 feet, and most of the others have a 
height of from 3 to 15 inches; a large number 
have either white, brown, greenish, blue, or vio- 
let flowers, and the rest have either yellow or 
purple flowers; about a dozen of the herbaceous 
species have prostrate stems, and either lobed or 
subentire, angular or toothed’ leaves, and the 
rest are erect, and have their lower leaves either 
opposite, whorled, or scattered. 
The common toadflax, Linaria vulgaris, called 
by the old botanists Antirrhinum linarva, is a 
perennial-rooted, annual-stemmed weed of the 
hedges and field-borders of Britain. Its stem is 
about a foot high; its leaves are linear-lanceo- 
late, crowded, and irregular ; and its flowers grow 
in terminal spikes, and are scentless, and have a 
yellow colour, and bloom from June till Septem- 
ber.—The creeping-rooted toadflax, Linaria re- 
pens, is a perennial-rooted but comparatively 
rare weed of the banks and hills of the calcareous 
districts of England. Its stem is panicled and 
about. a foot high; its leaves are linear, smooth, 
glaucous, partly whorled, and partly scattered ; 
and its flowers are sweet-scented, and have a 
greenish colour, and bloom from July till October. 
—The ivy-leaved toadflax, Lenaria cymbalaria, is 
a perennial-rooted indigen of old walls and similar 
situations in some parts of England, and possesses 
sufficient ornamental attractions to hold a place 
in flower-gardens, and especially on conspicuous 
walls. Its root is fibrous; its stems are procum- 
bent or trailing, cylindrical, much branched, 
smooth, and leafy; its foliage is evergreen, and 
of a deep shining verdure, often tinged with 
violet, and quite smooth ; its leaves are alternate, 
stalked, and similar in shape and appearance to 
those of ivy; and its flowers are solitary, and 
grow on long axillary footstalks, and have a 
small size, a very elegant form, and a variegatedly 
blue and violet corolla, and bloom from May till 
November. The whole plant hangs most beaute- 
ously from old walls, and exhibits there the ap- 
pearance of rich, dense, flowing festoons. One 
variety of it, Z. c. variegata, has variegated leaves ; 
and another variety, Z. c. alba, has white flowers. 
—The fluellin toadflax, or sharp-pointed fluellin, 
Linaria elatine, is an annual indigen of the corn- 
fields of some parts of England ; and is sometimes 
very abundant on gravelly and chalky soils. Its 
stems are procumbent, spreading, and about 6 
inches long; its leaves are lobed, halbert-shaped, 
and comparatively slender; and its flowers have 
yellow and purple colours, and make a pretty ap- 
pearance, and bloom from July till November.— 
The spurious toadflax, or round-leaved fluellin, 
Linaria spuria, is also an annual indigen of the 
corn-fields of England. Its stems are procum- 
bent; its leaves are subentire and rather larger 
and less slender than,those of the preceding ; and 
its flowers are larger, deeper-coloured, and more 
conspicuous than those of the preceding, and 
TOBACCO. 467 
bloom from July till September.— The small 
toadflax, Linarva minor, is an annual weed of 
the sandy fields of some parts of England. Its 
stem is erect and about 6 inches high ; its lower 
leaves are regularly arranged; and its flowers 
have a violet colour, and bloom from June till 
November. - 
TOBACCO,—botanically Necotiana. A genus 
of cultivated and ornamental plants, of the night- 
shade family. The corolla is monopetalous and 
funnel-shaped or bell-shaped ; the stigma is emar- 
ginate ; and the seeds are numerous, and enclosed 
in a two-celled capsule. Upwards of 30 species, 
besides a number of varieties, have been intro- 
duced to the gardens and the botanical collections 
of Britain. Two of the species are evergreen 
shrubs, two are evergreen herbs, one is a biennial, 
and all the rest are annuals; several have a 
height of only a few inches, but most have a 
height of from 3 to 8 feet ; nearly all have either 
pink, white, or herbaceous-coloured flowers, and 
bloom in the latter part of summer or early part 
of autumn ; a few are so tender as to be cultivable 
only in the greenhouse or the stove, and the rest 
are more or less hardy, and may, with proper 
precautions, be raised from seed in the open 
ground; a large number, irrespective of varie- 
ties, are cultivated for purposes of luxury or 
economy or medicine, and both these and all 
the others make either a curious or a very or- 
nate appearance in the flower-garden. 
The History of Tobacco.—Six of the species of 
tobacco now in British collections have been intro- 
duced at various periods since about the close of the 
17th century from China, Egypt, Persia, Nepaul, 
and Australia; and all the others have been intro- 
duced at various periods, since the latter part of the 
16th century, from Yucatan, Vera Cruz, Chili, Peru, 
Brazil, Columbia, Buenos Ayres, Havannah, and. 
several other parts of America. But the species 
first known in Europe, and often called par excel- 
lence the tobacco plant, and now bearing the botani- 
cal name of Micotiana tabacum, was diseovered by 
the Spanish invaders of America under Cortes, in 
the year 1519, in the province of Tabaco in Yuca- 
tan, and is thought by some botanists to have been 
not very extensively diffused beyond that province 
at the time of its discovery. The natives made 
universal use of the plant, and held it in high es- 
teem, and even treated it with veneration. ‘They 
smoked it as an article of luxury; and employed 
it as a medicine for all kinds of diseases; and 
used it to allay the pains of hunger and thirst, in 
their distant hunting expeditions; and eyen laid it 
on the altar as the most acceptable offering which 
they could make to their gods. 
Cortes carefully enquired into all the uses of to- 
baeco, and made himself acquainted with the mode 
of cultivating and preparing it; and he speedily pro- 
cured several plants of it, and transmitted them to 
Spain, accompanied by an accurate account of the 
virtues, real and imaginary, which it was said to 
possess. An unhappy disease, which had been im- 
ported from America at the first return of Colum- 
bus’s fleet, raged about this time with fearful viru- 
lence in Spain; and the tobacco plant was repre- 
sented to be an infallible remedy for it, and in con- 
sequence received a ready and zealous welcome. But 
when, after a time, it was found to be no more effec- 
tual than the usual remedies, it naturally sank into 
pee 
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