TOBACCO (of uncertain derivation, but most probably from the native American name), a genus (nicotiana) of plants of the natural order solanacea, having large broad leaves; a five-parted calyx; a funnel-shaped, five-lobed corolla, and five stamens; the flowers growing in panicles at the top of the stem; the fruit a two celled, five-valved, many-seeded capsule. The species are mostly herbaceous plants, rarely shrubby, with large broad leaves, and everywhere covered with clammy hairs. They are natives of warm countries, most of them American, although some are found in the East Indies. They all possess the narcotic property, on account of which a few of them are exten sively cultivated. It resides in almost all parts of the plant, although the leaves are almost exclusively used. The most important species is the COMMON TOBACCO, or Vin OMAN TOBACCO (N. tabacum), a native of the warm parts of America, the cultivation of which had extended, before the discovery of the new world by Columbus, far to the n. of the regions in which the plant appears to be indigenous. It is about 5 or 6 ft. high, erect, with lanceolate, sessile leaves, 6 to 18 in. ,long, and rose-colored flowers, the throat of the corolla inflated, the segments pointed. There are numerous varieties, differing more or less in the size and form of the leaves, and in the form and color of the flowers, some of which are regarded by some botanists as distinct species. One of these is the BROAD-LEAVED TOBACCO, or MARYLAND TOBACCO, which has a thicker stem, and much broader leaves. The GREEN TOBACCO (N. rustica), sometimes called ENGLISH TOBACCO, because it was the first kind introduced into England for cultiva tion, is a smaller plant, from 3 to 5 ft. high, with ovate, stalked leaves, and the segments of the corolla rounded, its tube cylindrical. It is a native of the east, but is more hardy than the Virginian tobacco, and is therefore cultivated in more, northern regions. The PERSIAN TOBACCO (Y. Persica) has the root-leaves oblong, those of the stem lanceolate and sessile; the corolla salver-shaped, with a long tube; its lobes rather unequal. It is a native of Persia, and furnishes the Shiraz tobacco, so much esteemed in the east, and which is milder than the common tobacco. Other species of tobacco are used in dif ferent parts of America, and some o'f them are cultivated to a small extent, as N. ropanda, in Cuba; N. guadrivalvis, by the Indians on the Missouri; N. multivalris. by the Indians on the Columbia; and N. nana, by the Indians of the Rocky mountains.
It is somewhat doubtful whether the use of tobacco as a narcotic was known in the east before the discovery of America. Meyen, in his Geography of Plants, expresses the opinion that the smoking of tobacco is of great antiquity among the Chinese, because on very old sculptures he has "observed the very same tobacco-pipes which are now in use." Meyen's authority, however, is greater as a botanist than as an archaeologist, and cannot be received as decisive of the antiquity of the sculptures of which he speaks. It is not improbable that the smoking of tobacco has been long practiced in China, but it is not certain. If it was so, the custom did not extend among neighboring nations, which, however, has been the case also as to the use of some other narcotics; whereas, on the introduction of the use of tobacco from America, it rapidly extended through out Europe, and soon became extremely prevalent among oriental nations. In the pres ent state of our knowledge, no ethnological argument can be founded upon the prevalence of smoking among the Mongolians and the American Indians. The smoking of tobacco was found by Columbus to be practiced in the West Indies, where the natives made it into cylindrical rolls, wrapped in maize-leaf. It has been prevalent from unknown antiquity among the American Indians afar north as Canada. With them it even has
a religious character, and is connected with their worship and with all their important transactions. Thus the calumet (q.v.), or pipe of peace, is indispensable to the ratifica tion of a treaty; and smoking together has even greater significance of friendship than eating together has among other nations. "In the belief of the ancient worshipers, the Great Spirit smelled a sweet savor as the smoke of the sacred plant ascended to the heavens; and the homely implement of modern luxury was in their-hands a sacred censer, from which the hallowed vapor rose with as fitting propitiatory odors as that which per fumes the awful precincts of the cathedral alter, amid the mysteries of the church's high and holy days."—Wilson's Prehistoric Nan, i. 383. The seeds of the tobacco plant were first brought to Europe by Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo, who introduced it into Spain, where it was first cultivated as an ornamental plant, till Nicolo Manardes extolled it as possessed of medicinal virtues. It was introduced into Italy in 1560. The use of tobacco in the form of snuff soon followed its introduction for smoking. There is no reference to the use of tobacco in Shakespeare, yet it is certain from other evidence that it was well known in England in his time,although at first its use was confined to the wealthy, as the price was very high and it was smoked in very small pipes—probably the same which are known to antiquaries as elfin pipes—and the smoke was expelled, not from the mouth, but by the nostrils, in which way the narcotic power of the herb is much greater. To bacco was at first recommended for medicinal virtues, which were greatly exaggerated, but soon became an article of luxury. The popes Urban VIII. and Innocent XI. ful minated against it the thunders of the church; the priests and sultans of Turkey declared smoking a crime, sultan Amuret IV. decreeing its punishment by the most cruel kinds of death; the pipes of smokers were thrust through their noses in Turkey; and in Russia the noses of smokers were cut off in the earlier part of the 17th century. King James I. of England issued a Counterblaste to Tobacco, in which he described its use as " a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fumes thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." All opposition, however, was in vain. The use of tobacco increased and has continued to increase to the present day, when it is more prevalent than at any former time, the luxury of rich and poor, of civilized na tions and of savage tribes. Although it did not become prevalent in the east till the 17th c, the Turks and Persians are now the greatest smokers in the world. In India, all classes and both sexes smoke; in China, the practice—perhaps there more ancient— is universal, and girls, from the age of eight or nine, wear, as an appendage to their dress, a small silken pocket to hold tobacco and a pipe. How the practice of smoking has increased in Britain, every one knows: The use of snuff has not increased in the same manner, but has rather diminished. Tobacco is used in the three modes of smok ing, chewing, and snuffing. Plugging, the stuffing of the nostrils with quids of tobacco, has been almost universally discontinued, although at one time it was practiced to a small extent. In Britain, chewing is now chiefly practiced by sailors, smoking being prohibited or restricted at sea, on account of the danger of fire; but it is very prevalent in some parts of the world, particularly in North America. The smoking of tobacco is everywhere more or less social, like the use of wine; and the snuff-box is handed from one to another in token of good-fellowship.