CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

ENGLISH TOBACCO

Description. It rises from a long fibrous root; the stem is robust, round and hairy, branched, and two or three feet high: the leaves are numerous, very large, of an oblong form, pointed at the end, entire at the sides, of a dusky green colour, and clammy to the touch. The flowers are numerous, large, of a reddish colour, they terminate the stem and branches, and make a pretty appearance at a distance. The seeds, are numerous, round and small.

Place. It is a native of the West Indies, but we raise it in our gardens.

Time. When it is sown on a hot-bed early in the spring, it arrives at a tolerable degree of perfection in summer.

Government and virtues. It is a hot martial plant. A slight infusion of the fresh-gathered leaves vomits, and that very roughly; but for constitutions that can bear it, it is a good medicine for rheumatic pains; an ointment made of them, with hog's-lard, is good for the piles when they get painful and are inflamed. The distilled oil is sometimes dropped on cotton, and applied to aching teeth, and it seldom fails to give temporary relief. The powdered leaves, or a decoction of them, kill lice, and other vermin. The smoke of tobacco injected in the manner of a glyster, is of a singular efficacy in obstinate stoppages of the bowels, for destroying those small worms called ascarides, and for the recovery of persons apparantly drowned. A constant chewing, or smoking of tobacco, hurts the appetite, by depriving the constitution of too much saliva; but though it is improper for lean dry, hectic people, it may be useful to the more gross, and to such as are subject to cold diseases. Snuff is seldom productive of any bad effets, unless it be swallowed, but it should not be used by such as are inclined to an apoplexy. Tobacco is a great expeller of phelgm when smoaked in a pipe, in which vast quantities are consumed, the greatest part by way of amusement, though some commend it as a helper of digestion; many extol it as a preservative from the plague; but Rivinus says, that is the plague of Leipsic several died, who were great smoakers of tobacco. The distilled oil is of a poisonous nature: a drop of it taken inwardly, will destroy a cat.