[CHAPTER II.]
A Description of the Plant and its Flowers.
There are several species of the Tobacco Plant, and these are chiefly distinguishable by their flowers, and the junction of the leaves to the stalks; but as this is not intended for a Botanical Treatise, I shall confine my description to those sorts which are cultivated in the colonies for exportation: these are two; the Oronokoe and the sweet-scented; which differ from each other in no respect but in the shape of their leaves, those of the former being longer and narrower than the latter. Both are tall, herbaceous plants, of an erect growth and noble foliage, rising each with a strong stem (in their native soil) to the height of from six to nine feet. The stalk is upwards of an inch diameter near the root, and surrounded with a kind of hairy or velvet, clammy substance, of a yellowish green colour. The leaves, which are rather of a deeper green, grow to the stalk alternately, at the distance of about two or three inches from each other. They are oblong, of a spear-shaped-oval, and simple; without pedicles embracing the stalk by an auriculated base. The largest are about twenty inches long, decreasing in size as they ascend, till they are not longer than ten inches, and nearly half as broad. The face of the leaves is much undulated, or corrugated, not unlike those of spinnage when full ripe. In their first state, at the time they do not exceed five or six inches, the leaves are usually of a full green, and rather smooth, but as they increase in size they acquire a yellowish cast and become rougher.
The stem and branches are terminated by large bunches of flowers, collected into clusters of a delicate red, the edges, when quite blown, inclining to a pale purple. The flowers continue in succession until the end of summer, when they make room for the seed. These are of a brown colour, kidney-shaped, and very small, each capsule generally containing about a thousand, and the whole produce of a single plant is estimated at three hundred and fifty thousand. The seeds are usually ripe in the month of September, and when perfectly dry may be rubbed out and preserved in bags till the following season.
The Oronokoe, or, as it is termed by the seedsmen, the long Virginia, appears to me to be the sort best suited to bear the rigour of a northern climate, the strength of the plant, as well as the scent and efficacy of the leaves being greater than the other. The sweet-scented flourishes most in a sandy soil and warm countries, where it greatly exceeds the former in the celerity of its growth; and although, as I have before observed, it differs from the Oronokoe only in the shape of its leaves, being shorter and rounder, yet it is unlike in its strength and flavour, being, agreeable to its name, much milder and pleasanter.
As a species of garden plants, the Nicotiana is an ornamental annual for the pleasure ground, as it attains a majestic stature, and being adorned with fine luxuriant leaves, and large clusters of pleasing flowers which terminate all the shoots, during the autumn it exhibits an elegant appearance.
For a more compleat idea of the Oronokoe plant and its flowers, the reader is referred to the plate prefixed to this Work. But it must be observed, that the number of leaves represented on the stalk is not designed to serve as a rule for topping the tobacco, as directed in the fourth chapter. Only a few of them are annexed to the stalk, that the representation of the leaf might be the more compleat.