The name is taken from Nicotiana, the tobacco plant, so called after Jean Nicot (1530-1600), French ambassador at Lisbon, who introduced tobacco into France in 1560.
Mexican tobaccos (Nicotiana Tabacum, variety macrophyllum) are to-day predominant in a large part of Cuban vegas..
There are about fifty species of Nicotiana, nearly all of which are natives of America.
William Bragge of Birmingham published in 1880 a revised bibliography of the subject, Bibliotheca nicotiana, extending to 248 quarto pages.
Nicotiana affinis: half-hardy, 2 to 3 ft., white.
6lb 3 lb 3 lb Nicotiana Sanderae: half-hardy, 2 to 3 ft., white, crimson, scarlet, &c.
- The pistil of Tobacco (Nicotiana Tabacum), consisting of the ovary o, containing ovules, the style s, and the capitate stigma g.
The services rendered by Nicot in spreading a knowledge of the plant have been commemorated in the scientific name of the genus Nicotiana.