Tobacco was introduced into China, probably by way of Japan or Manila, during the 16th or 17th century, but its use was prohibited by the emperors both of the Ming and Tsing dynasties. It is now cultivated in most of the provinces, and is universally employed.[1708]
The first tolerably exact description of the tobacco plant is that given by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés, governor of St. Domingo, in his Historia general de las Indias,[1709] printed at Seville in 1535. In this work, the plant is said to be smoked through a branched tube of the shape of the letter Y, which the natives call Tabaco.
It was not until the middle of the 16th century that growing tobacco was seen in Europe,—first at Lisbon, whence the French ambassador, Jean Nicot, sent seeds to France in 1560 as those of a valuable medicinal plant, which was even then diffused throughout Portugal.[1710]
Monardes,[1711] writing in 1571, speaks of tobacco as brought to Spain a few years previously, and valued for its beauty and for its medicinal virtues. Of the latter he gives a long account, noticing also the methods of smoking and chewing the herb prevalent among the Indians. He also supplies a small woodcut representing the plant, which he states to have white flowers, red in the centre.
Jacques Gohory,[1712] who cultivated the plant in Paris at least as early as 1572, describes its flowers as shaded with red, and enumerates various medicinal preparations made from it.
In the Maison Rustique of Charles Estienne, edition of 1583, the author gives a “Discours sur la Nicotiane ou Petum mascle,” in which he claims for the plant the first place among medicinal herbs, on account of its singular and almost divine virtues.
The cultivation of tobacco in England, except on a very small scale in a physic garden, has been prohibited by law[1713] since 1660.
Description—Amongst the various species of Nicotiana cultivated for the manufacturing of smoking tobacco and snuff, N. Tabacum is by far the most frequent, and is almost the only one named in the pharmacopœias as medicinal. Its simple stem, bearing at the summit a panicle of tubular pink flowers, and growing to the height of a man, has oblong, lanceolate simple leaves, with the margin entire. The lower leaves, more broadly lanceolate, and about 2 feet long by 6 inches wide, are shortly stalked. The stem-leaves are semi-amplexicaul, and decurrent at the base. Cultivation sometimes produces cordate-ovate forms of leaf, or a margin more or less uneven, or nearly revolute.
All the herbaceous parts of the plant are clothed with long soft hairs, made up of broad, ribbon-like, striated cells, the points of which exude a glutinous liquid. Small sessile glands are situated here and there on the surface of the leaf.[1714] The lateral veins proceed from the thick midrib in straight lines, at angles of 40° to 75°, gently curving upwards only near the edge. In drying, the leaves become brittle and as thin as paper, and always acquire a brown colour. Even by the most careful treatment of a single leaf, it is not possible to preserve the green hue.
The smell of the fresh plant is narcotic; its taste bitter and nauseous. The characteristic odour of dried tobacco is developed during the process of curing.