"Tobacco, or henbane of Peru, hath very great stalks of the bigness of a child's arme, growing in fertile and well-dunged ground of seven or eight feet high, dividing itself in sundry branches of great length; whereon are placed in most comely order very faire, long leaves, broad, smooth and sharp-pointed, soft and of a light green color; so fastened about the stalk that they seem to embrace and compass it about. The flowers grow at the top of the stalks in shape like a bell-flower, somewhat long and cornered; hollow within, of a light carnation color, tending to whiteness towards the rims. The seed is contained in long, sharp-pointed cods, or seed-vessels, like unto the seed of yellow henbane, but somewhat smaller, and browner of color. The root is great, thicke and of a wooddy substance, with some threddy strings annexed thereunto."
MEXICAN TOBACCO.
The tobacco plant seems to have been cultivated in Mexico from time immemorial. Francisco Lopez de Gomara, who was chaplain to Cortez, when he made conquest of Mexico, in 1519, alludes to the plant and the custom of smoking; and Diaz relates that the king Montezuma had his pipe brought with much ceremony by the chief ladies of his court, after he had dined and washed his mouth with scented water. The Spaniards encouraged its cultivation, and to this day it is grown in several of the coast states. Various kinds are cultivated, but chiefly a variety bearing yellow flowers, with a large leaf of fine flavor resembling the Havana. The plant is a favorite with the Mexicans, who prefer it to any other product grown. It is cultivated like most varieties of the tropics, and is hardly inferior to any grown in the West Indies, and is especially adapted for cigars and cigaritos. After the first harvest another, and sometimes a third crop is gathered by allowing one shoot to grow from the parent root, which oftentimes develops to a considerable size. The quality of leaf, however, is inferior; as is the case with all second and third crops grown in this manner.
ST. DOMINGO TOBACCO.
This well-known West India variety is inferior to most kinds grown on the neighboring islands. The plant attains a large size, cures dark, is coarse, and of inferior flavor. It is a favorite tobacco in Germany, and thousands of Ceroons are annually shipped to Hamburg. The West India islands produce many varieties of tobacco, which is owing more to the composition of the soil and climate than to the method of cultivation and curing.
The demand for St. Domingo tobacco is limited. It has no established reputation in this country, and on account of the high duties can not compete with our domestic tobaccos.
LATAKIA TOBACCO.
Latakia Tobacco, (Syria).