TOBACCO. 
bacco daily brought into this Our realme of England 
and dominions of Wales, from the parts beyond the 
seas.” From that period down to the present day, 
the history of tobacco in Britain exhibits principally 
a tissue of mere fiscal regulations respecting the pub- 
lic revenue from it, and an outspread and increasing 
waste of property and life and morals from the oper- 
ation of its narcotism. 
The Cultivated Species of Tobacco.—The com- 
mon or Virginia tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, is 
an annual. Its root is fibrous and large; its 
stem is erect, cylindrical, villous, slightly viscid, 
branched, and commonly from 4 to 6 feet high; 
its leaves are sessile, slightly decurrent, alter- 
nate, large, entire, oblong, pointed, strongly 
midribbed, pale green on the upper surface, and 
still paler on the under one,—the lowermost 
about two feet long and four inches broad; its 
flowers grow in large terminal panicles, and have 
a bell-shaped calyx and a tubular, cup-mouthed, 
very viscid corolla, and bloom in July and Au- 
gust; its corolla is twice as long as its calyx, 
and has a pale greenish colour in the tube and a 
pale red or pink or rose colour in the mouth; 
and its fruit is an ovate capsule, containing 
many small kidney-shaped seeds, and opening at 
the apex. Nine very distinct varieties are in 
cultivation,—the Verdan, the lute, the palles- 
cent, the attenuated, the slender-stalked, the 
wing-stalked, the tongue-leaved, the long-leaved, 
and the great broad-leaved; and the two last of 
these commonly attain nearly double the height 
of any of the others, and even rise on rich moist 
soils to the height of 10 feet,—and the broad- 
leaved has large, oval-shaped, roughly glutinous 
leaves, generally about 18 inches in length and 
14 in breadth, and has upright and purplish- 
coloured flowers. The Virginian tobacco is the 
species most extensively, or even generally, cul- 
tivated in America. 
The rustic or green tobacco, Vicotiana rustica, 
is also an annual and a native of America, and 
is supposed to have been introduced to Britain 
about the same time as the preceding species. 
Its stem is upright, and commonly from 3 to 5 
feet high; its leaves are stalked, ovate or some- 
what heart-shaped, deeply furrowed, of a com- 
paratively dark green colour, from 9 to 12 
inches long, and from 5 to 8 inches broad; and 
its flowers are of a dull yellowish green colour, 
and have a cylindrically tubular corolla, scarcely 
longer than the calyx, with short, blunt, re- 
curved segments, and bloom from July till Sep- 
tember. ‘This species is the one principally cul- 
tivated in the north and centre of Europe, and 
is hardier and more suited to the climate of Bri- 
tain than the Virginian species, and, when grown 
with us in the open ground, is generally ripen- 
ing to seeds at the time when the Virginian is 
but beginning to bloom. Its seeds also retain 
their vitality in the ground during a number of 
years; so that wherever a crop of it has been 
grown, seedling plants will spontaneously arise 
through a series of seasons. 
Among the other cultivated tobaccos are the 
repand, WV. repanda, a hardy annual of commonly 
about 2 or 3 feet in height, carrying white flowers 
in June and July, and introduced from Havan- 
nah in 1820; the wave-leaved or sweet-smelling, 
NV. undulata or N. suaveolens, a greenhouse, ever- 
green, herbaceous perennial, of commonly about 
2 or 3 feet in height, carrying white flowers from 
May till September, and introduced from Aus- 
tralia in 1800; the shrubby, JV. fruticosa, an 
evergreen shrub, of commonly from 4 to 6 feet in 
height, carrying pink-coloured flowers in July 
and August, and introduced from China in 1699 ; 
and two or three or more hardy annuals, of very 
similar appearance to the Virginian and the rus- 
tic, principally from 3 to 5 feet high, carrying 
either pink, red, white, or greenish flowers for 
some time between June and September, and 
introduced at various periods from America. The 
kinds most suited to Britain, however, are the 
Virginian for the garden and the rustic for the 
field. 
The Cultivation of Tobacco.—Tobacco, in some 
one or other of its hardy varieties, can grow and 
prosper in all the temperate regions of the world 
up to a high latitude; and is extensively culti- 
vated in the Low Countries, in Germany, and 
even in Sweden; and might, beyond all ques- 
tion, be produced to any desirable amount in the 
British Islands. It was raised in the open ground 
in England, immediately after being introduced ; 
and was with difficulty driven out of experi- | 
mental British cultivation by the opposition of 
King James; and was grown, with the most 
promising results, on the banks of the Teviot 
and the Tweed up till the application of the 
prohibitory laws to Scotland in 1782; and has 
been successfully raised in the field, in the 
north of Ireland, in quite recent years. The 
cultivation of it in Britain, however, even 
though it were fully permitted by law, would 
never become extensive, except perhaps for pur- 
poses of adulteration ; for all tobacco grown 
here is deficient in the flavour, pungency, 
and narcotic power which characterise the to- 
bacco grown in hot countries, and which consti- 
tute the main value of the plant, whether as a 
drug or as a popular and debasing luxury. 
The methods of cultivation in different cli- 
mates and countries are widely various; and 
that practised in Franee and Belgium, with the 
tongue-leaved variety of the Virginian species, 
and detailed in the Journal d’ Agriculture, @ Heo- 
nomie Rurale, et des Manufactures, by Bailley St. 
Martin, inspector of tobacco manufactures in 
France, may be selected as the most instructive 
and interesting to British readers. The soil 
most suitable is of a marly, hot, and rather moist 
nature; and the manures most favourable are 
the sweepings of streets, the deposits of sewer- 
age, and the ashes of strongly alkaline plants, 
such as those of artichokes, kidney-beans, ferns, 
beach, and buckwheat. The seed should be sown. 
