TOBACCO-CUTTING MACHINE 252 TOBACCO: GROWING, CURING, AND MANUFACTURING. CHAPTER I. THE PLANT. Next to the most common grains and pulses, probably no plant is so widely and generally cultivated as tobacco. In what country or at what date its use originated has little to do with us from a practical point of view, though interesting enough as a subject for the student of ethnography and natural history. Suffice it to say that it has been grown and smoked since pre-historic times in many tropical and sub-tropical countries, and has assumed an importance in modern daily life only surpassed by a few prominent food plants and cotton. This long-continued and widespread cultivation has helped to produce local varieties or races of the plant which have sometimes been mistaken for distinct species, and caused a multiplication of scientific names almost bewildering. The following epitome comprehends the species and varieties of _Nicotiana_ possessing interest for the cultivator:— I. _N. Tabacum macrophylla_ [_latifolia_, _lattissima_, _gigantea_]—Maryland tobacco. Of this, there are two sub-species—(1) Stalkless Maryland, of the following varieties: (_a_) _N. macrophylla ovata_—short-leaved Maryland, producing a good smoking-tobacco, (_b_) _N. macrophylla longifolia_—long-leaved Maryland, yielding a good smoking-tobacco, and excellent wrappers for cigars, (_c_) _N. macrophylla pandurata_—broad-leaved, or Amersfort, much cultivated in Germany and Holland, a heavy cropper, and especially adapted for the manufacture of good snuff; (2) Stalked Maryland, of the following varieties: (_a_) _N. macrophylla alata_, (_b_) _N. macrophylla cordata_—heart-shaped Maryland, producing a very fine leaf, from which probably the finest Turkish is obtained. Cuban and Manilla are now attributed to this group.