Fig. 1 is a Cuban tobacco, and much grown on the continent of Europe, notably in Holland, Germany, and Switzerland, and there known as _goundie_, from the name of an American consul who introduced the plant into Germany in 1848. It has a broad yet somewhat pointed leaf, with the ribs not arranged in pairs; it is fine, soft, thin, and esteemed for smoking in pipes and for wrappers of cigars. One variety of the Maryland plant is shown in Fig. 2. The leaves spring from a tall stem at considerable intervals, and are broad and rounded at the end. This kind is valued for cigar-wrappers, and assumes a fine light brown colour when well cured. [Illustration: FIG. 2.] A broad-leaved Cuban or Maryland growth long naturalized in Germany, and now familiar as Amersfort, is represented in Fig. 3. It is distinguished by unusual length of leaf accompanied by a corresponding narrowness. A stem and flower are shown at _a_, a leaf at _b_, a flower in section at _c_, a capsule at _d_, a seed at _e_, and a cross-section of a leaflet at _f_. [Illustration: FIG. 3.] These three examples represent the most successful kinds grown in Europe and at the same time some of the most marked diversities of form of leaf. CHAPTER II. CULTIVATION. The following observations on the methods of cultivating tobacco have reference more particularly to the processes as conducted in Cuba, India, and the United States; this branch of agriculture has been brought to great perfection in the last-named country, and the supervision of the operations in India is mostly entrusted to skilled Americans.