TOBACCO:

ITS HISTORY AND ASSOCIATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

THE TOBACCO PLANT.

TOBACCO is a hardy flowering perennial plant, growing freely in a rich moist soil, which is very necessary to its healthy development; but which it is said to exhaust in a remarkable degree. It varies in height according to species and locality; in some instances growing to the altitude of fifteen feet, in others not reaching more than three feet from the ground. There is also a dwarf kind discovered by Houston at Vera Cruz, the leaves of which grow in tufts near the ground, the flowers rising from a central stem to the height of eighteen inches. As many as forty varieties of the Tobacco plant have been noted by botanists, who class them all among the Solanacea, and narcotic poisons. The Atropa Belladonna, or deadly nightshade, is a member of this family; but it may be of use to the nervous to know that the common potato is in the same category; and that, though tobacco will

B

produce a virulent poison-Nicotine-by the chemical condensation of a large quantity,* in a similar manner the Potato fruit and leaves give us Solanine, "an acrid narcotic poison, two grains of which given to a rabbit,' produced paralysis of the posterior extremities, and death in two hours. Traces of this are also found in the healthy tubers." It is therefore evident that in a moderate manner we may equally smoke our tobacco or eat our potato as regardless of the horrors that chemistry would seem at first to disclose, as when enjoying the flavour of the bitter almond, which we know to be owing to the presence of Prussic acid. The three principal varieties of the plant most commonly grown are, the Virginian tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum-Linnæus), which is that which was first brought to Europe by Sir Francis Drake (fig. I of Frontispiece); it sometimes reaches the height of seven feet, and is of a strong coarse growth, the leaves sometimes two feet long, clasp the stem as shown at A, and are covered with glandular hairs, which burst on the smallest pressure, and impart a glutinous character to the leaf, and an unpleasant odour to the hand. The flowers grow in a bunch on the summit of the plant, they are of a pink colour, the segments of the corolla

* Johnston, in his Chemistry of Common Life, tells us that Melseus extracted three-quarters of a grain of nicotine from one hundred grains of Virginian tobacco, so that the proportions are as I to 125. In 1851, the Comte de Bocarmè was executed at Mons for poisoning a brother-in-law by means of nicotine, in order to obtain the reversion of his property.

+ Prescott (on the authority of Pereira), in his Tobacco, and its Adulterations.

being pointed, as shown at A 2. Shag, Returns, and the ordinary cut tobaccos are prepared from this kind; of which there are many varieties, giving name to different qualities of tobacco, and chiefly adopted from the places of their growth. The Syrian Tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) differs from this in many essential particulars, as may be seen in our engraving (fig. 2), the principal being the branched stem, each offshoot bearing flowers; the leaves do not clasp the stem, but are attached by a long stalk, and they are not lanceolate, but ovate in form; the flowers are not pink, but green, and the segments of the corolla are rounded. It does not grow so high as the American plant by about two feet; it is milder than that in flavour, and is used for the more delicate cut tobaccos and cigars. The Latakia tobacco, and that known as Turkish and Syrian, are both manufactured from this plant. It is a native of America, but grows wild in other countries, and is a hardy annual in English gardens, flowering from Midsummer to Michaelmas, so that by some botanists it has been termed " common, or English tobacco." The Shiraz Tobacco (Nicotiana persica-Lindley) differs from both in the form of the leaves, and the colour of the flowers, which are white, and the segments of the corolla unequal. It is a native of Persia, and used for the manufacture of their most delicate kinds for smoking, but Lindley informs us that it is not fitted to form cigars, as it does not readily ignite. It is also never used medicinally as other tobaccos are, or have been.

The tobacco plant would grow freely in Great Britain, if government would allow its cultivation; it is now the policy to prohibit it, for the benefit of our colonies, whose trade with the mother country would be seriously damaged but for these restrictions. It was at one time extensively cultivated in the Northriding of Yorkshire; but in the early part of the reign of George III., penalties were inflicted on the growers, to the amount of £30,000, and the tobacco publicly burned. In Scotland it was also grown when our colonial trade was interrupted by the American war. About Kelso and Jedburgh a considerable tract of land was devoted to this purpose, the Act of Charles II. which made the growth illegal in England, of course not affecting Scotland; to meet which emergency the Act of the 19th of George III. was passed, which prohibits the cultivation of more than will occupy half a rod of ground; and which is to be used for medicinal purposes, or the destruction of insects.* In Ireland it was successfully grown, particularly in the county of Wexford, some years after the restrictive law just named was passed for England, and which, curiously enough, repealed the similar laws for Ireland. Tobacco could therefore be grown at home with us, as with other European nations; if it were our legal policy to permit it. Holland, which is in our latitude, but colder and damper in its soil, carries on

* It is frequently grown in the kitchen garden to destroy grubs and insects by its infusion in water, or to drive them from hothouses, by fumigation with dried leaves. In both ways it is most effective.

a large trade in its growth. France cultivates it also; but the larger quantity is grown in Germany: the time of harvesting the leaves is an interesting period for a stranger to visit the villages, which put on a new aspect as every house and barn is hung all over with the drying leaves. The European tobacco is less powerful in flavour than the American; and the native tobacco of Germany may be smoked to a continuous extent, which would be dangerous or disagreeable if the New World tobacco were used. Temperate climates, with a deep rich soil ranging from forty to fifty degrees of latitude, are said to be the most favourable for its free development. It is grown from seed; but frost is particularly injurious to young plants: the lower leaves are sometimes gathered as they ripen or begin to change colour, an operation performed at intervals till all are removed; or the growth of the plant is arrested by cutting off the top, to prevent the formation of flowers and seed, and enlarge the growth of leaves; or the plant is cut down entire, dried in the sun, and the leaves separated afterwards.

*

Mr. Prescott thus enumerates the principal places from which tobacco finds its way into the English Market, and the peculiar uses to which each kind is devoted :

"EUROPE.-Germany, Holland, and Salonica in European Turkey.

* Of the Inland Revenue department, in his valuable work on Tobacco, and its Adulterations, recently published by Van Voorst.