TOBACCO. Nieotiana Tabacum, Linn. Solanacece. Figs. 862-880 ; also Figs. 178, and 108 in Vol. I.
By A. D. Shame!.
Tobacco is a plant of American origin, the leaves of which are used for smoking, chewing, snuff and also medicinal purposes. The genus Nicoliana embraces about fifty species, but N. Tabacum (from South America) supplies about all of the cultivated varieties of tobacco. Another species, Nicotiana rustica, is occasionally found wild in Connecticut, New York, Colorado, and other states. It is com monly grown in Mexico for smoking purposes, being there perennial.
Botanical characters. (Figs. 862, 863.) The tobacco flowers are arranged on a branching, determinate flower-head, which appears when the middle leaves are about half-grown, and continues to develop and produce new flowers during the remainder of the life of the plant. The calyx is green and five-parted. The corolla is tubular or funnel-shaped and delicately colored. It is compar atively small from the basal end to a point about two-thirds the distance to the terminal end of the flower. At this point it enlarges suddenly to more than twice the size of the basal part. Its five petals coalesce to form the corolla tube, and separate only at the extreme end. The stamens are five in number. The ovary is two-celled. The early capsules always mature before flowering ceases.
The tobacco flower is symmetrical. The number of sepals and stamens is always the same as the number of petals, but these floral circles do not remain constant, varying rather indefinitely in different strains and even among individuals of the same strain. Trimerous flowers, or flowers with three parts in each flower circle, have been found growing on the same plant with pentamerous flowers, or those having five floral parts. This is the exception, however.
History and distribution.
The extreme antiquity of the use of the leaves of this plant for smoking purposes is indicated by the discovery of pipes and other means f o r smoking to bacco in the pre historic mounds of the United States, Mexico and Peru. Columbus, on his voyages, discov ered the natives using tobacco for smoking, chewing and as a snuff. In 1558, Jean Nicot, the French Am bassador to Por tugal, sent a supply of tobacco seed to Queen Cath erine de Medici, and to commemofate this service the generic name Nicotiana was given the plant. Killebrew states that early American explorers heard the plant called tobacco in Mexico, where it was cultivated extensively. The name "tobacco"
also may have come from the name of the kind of pipe used by the Carribees, the " tobaco." The systematic cultivation of tobacco was begun in Virginia about 1612, by John Rolfe. Among the early settlers in Virginia, at Jamestown and other places, tobacco was the common currency and the principal article of export. It is asserted by com petent authorities that without this crop the first settlement in Virginia would have been a failure, and that tobacco was the foundation of the pros perity of the state. The cultivation of the crop rapidly developed, so that in 1731 the export of tobacco from Virginia and Maryland reached 60,000 hogsheads of 600 pounds each, yielding $1,875,000.
The culture of tobacco in New England began at the time of the settlement of the country. Its cul ture was opposed by many of the Puritan settlers, so that it did not develop to any great extent until about 1795. At this time, some of the settlers in the Connecticut valley, finding that the soil and climatic conditions were favorable for the development of a fine smoking tobacco, began to grow considerable areas. It was found that this tobacco, when manufactured into a roll, gave a delightful aroma and had a pleasant taste. In this way the first commercial cigars were made in the homes of the settlers, some of which were shipped for sale to New York and other thriving centers of population. About 1811 or 1812, the first cigar manufacturing establishments were built at Wind sor and Suffield. This section has remained the leading cigar-tobacco producing section until the present time. The industry in New England has had many changes during this period, but, as a whole, it remains one of the most profitable in the Connecticut valley. As a result of the importation of Cuban tobacco, and of the development of the Ohio and Pennsylvania tobacco-producing sections, where the tobacco has a superior aroma and flavor, the Connecticut valley tobacco has come to be largely used for cigar wrapper and binder purposes, the Ohio, Pennsylvania and imported Cuban to baccos being used for cigar fillers. The New Eng land tobaccos have a peculiar gloss, stretch and burn, which particularly fits them for cigar-wrap per purposes, in addition to the fact that when wrapped on cigars they blend nicely with the best fillers.