The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom / Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.

by P. L. Simmonds

Cuba tobacco	8.64	of nicotine.
Maryland	5.28
Virginia	10.00
Ile et Vilaine	11.20
Lot et Garonne	8.20

quantities from 12 to 19 times more than were obtained by Posselt and Reimann.—"Ure's Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures."

The following are the results of a series of experiments made by Messrs. Cooper and Brande, for the purpose of ascertaining the quantity of soluble matter in eight samples of tobacco, of detecting the presence and quantity of sugar contained in them, and the nature and relative proportions of their inorganic constituents. An important paper on the state in which Nicotine exists in tobacco, and on the relative proportion of it furnished by different varieties of the plant, has been furnished by Schlœssing ("Ann. Ch. et Ph." 3ieme Ser. XIX. 230).

Tobacco dried at 212 degs.	Per cent of extract, &c. soluble in water.	Per cent of woody fibre &c. insoluble in water.	Per cent of ash after treatment with carbonate of ammonia.	Per cent of matter soluble in water in the ash.	Per cent of matter soluble by hydrocloric acid in the ash.	Per cent of insoluble matter, as silica, &c. in the ash.	Per cent of alcohol obtained from fermentated infusion.	Per cent of saccharine matter deduced from the obtained alcohol.
1. Light Missouri leaf and stalk	49	54.9	20.97 white	2.17	11.73	5.9	—	—
2. Light Missouri leaf only	50	47.7	19.7 white	1.77	12.83	5.1	0.75	1.50
3. Dark Missouri leaf and stalk	50	52.4	16.47 white	4.2	10.14	2.13	—	—
4. Dark Missouri leaf only	51	50.6	13.8 white	2.17	8.73	2.9	0.35	0.71
5. Light Virginia leaf and stalk	51.5	53.1	16.4 gray- white	2.53	8.54	5.33	—	—
6. Light Virginia leaf only	54	46.1	11.97 green- gray	2.0	6.86	3.11	1.045	2.09
7. Dark Virginia leaf and stalk	48.5	51.8	14.7 gray	4.8	8.40	1.5	—	—
8. Dark Virginia leaf only	52	49.8	12.53 gray	2.63	8.20	1.7	1.46	2.93

1. The samples were dried and the woody fibre and extract were also dried at 212 degs. The watery infusions of all contained ammoniacal salts. The salts from the ash, which were soluble in water, consisted of sulphates, carbonates, phosphates, and chlorides; the bases being potassa and lime. The solution by hydrochloric acid contained lime, alumina, phosphate of lime, and oxide of iron.

3. Contained oxide of manganese in small quantity; sulphates in watery solution of ash abundant. Hydrochloric solution contained an abundance of lime.

4. A trace of manganese; a trace only of phosphoric acid in watery solution.

5. Contained abundance of oxide of manganese.

6. Abundance of oxide of manganese.