Among the articles of commerce tobacco holds a distinguished rank, and affords no inconsiderable addition to the revenues of the state. Before the present unhappy dissentions broke out between Great-Britain and America, about ninety-six thousand hogsheads were annually imported from Maryland and Virginia. Thirteen thousand five hundred of which were consumed at home; the duty of which, at the rate of 26_l._ 1_s._ per hogshead, amounted to 351,765_l._ The remaining eighty-two thousand, five hundred hogsheads were exported to various parts of Europe, and their value received in specie, or the produce of those countries. To the uses already enumerated, I shall add another to which tobacco might be applied, that I believe has never been made known to Europeans, and which will render it much more estimable than any of the foregoing. It has been found by the Americans to answer the purpose of tanning leather, as well, if not better, than bark; and was not the latter so plentiful in their country would be generally used by them instead of it. I have been witness to many experiments wherein it has proved successful, especially on the thinner sorts of hides, and can safely pronounce it to be, in countries where bark is scarce, a valuable substitute for that article. FOOTNOTE: [1] Vide Travels into the interior parts of North-America, chap. 13, page 382. 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.