Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3491, 2 March 1905, Page 4

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■ j: > BRIEF HiSTORV OF TOBACCO. i First Cultivate i) In : :>e us an OrnamcnA. sin i n.at. 1 The name tobacco is thought by some to J fcavo been taken from Tobacco, a province i Jjf Yucatan, by others from Tobago, an J Island in tho Caribbean sea, and by still i - uthors from Tobasco, in tho gulf of Flor- \ W&. The plant, although it is asserted that / the Chinese have used it from earliest / times, -was not introduced into Europe un- / til after the discovery of America by Columbus. Ho first found it in use on the island of San Domingo in tho West Indies. , Tho Indian, among ali tho tribes from Peru to upper Canada, smoked it in pipes. Tho seed of tho plant was first introduced in Europe by Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo, who took it to Spain and cultivated it for ornamental purposes, but its narcotic qualities were shortly afterward discovered, and tho practice of smoking it Boon became general, and its manufacture Into snuff followed in course of time. It was introduced in Italy and Franco in 1500 and was brought into tho latter country by Jean Nicot, tho French embassador to Poraal, lu whoso honor it received its botannarao, nlcotiana, whence the name nicotine. Tho plant was introduced into England by Sir Walter Raleigh. It was along in tho seventeenth century before it was known to be used in Asia, but the oriental nations at tho present time are probably Ijho greatest smokers in tho world, accord Ing to Thorne. Leprosy In the Middle Ages. In the middle ages leprosy extended ovo* tho whole of Europe. Nearly every city in England, Franco and Germany had its 'lpMDital for such eases, and Italy suffered terribly from tho disease. Tho maximum Was reached in 1300, when there were 19,000 leper houses in Europe. Tho patients ; were excommunicated by papal “bulls.” They were cut off as “unclean ’ from intercourso of all sorts, and only in this way was the plague gradually suppressed. It disappeared as an epidemic in Europe in tho sixteenth century. A writer in tho New York Times vuys; It is still found everywhere in the orient, particularly among the fellahs of Egypt and India, in China "“ and Japan, in all the coast lands of Africa, pn Madagascar, Mauritius, St. Helena and Madeira, in Mexico and Central and South America. Such sufferers are found in Europo at present, as, for example, in Norway, whore there were 1,000 lepers in 1880 out of a population of 1,850,000, though this Was a decrease from 2,380 in 1804. They I - ' are also found on tho Greek islands of F Samos and Crete and to a less degree in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Russian provinces, and single cases are also occasionally found in middle Europe. Nature Not Always the Best Planter. Although not generally recognized in botanical and horticultural works, Meehan’s Monthly says it is simply a fact that nature does not always place plants in the localities best suited to their development. Swamp trees, for instance —laces which Sow partly in water —grow a great deal tter, more vigorously and every way apparently more happily when they can find themselves in dry ground, for specimens of maples, willows, sweet gums and other supposed swamp trees are always found in comparatively dry ground. What Is known as the Bermuda lily is another case in Ednt. This is a native of Japan, really ilium lougiflorum, but nowhere does it grow in such luxuriance as in tho islands of Bermuda, whore it was accidentally introduced or escaped from cultivation a great many years ago. So great is its luxuriance that it has been recognized as a distinct variety from tho Japau plant and is known in cultivation as Lllivmi harrisll, having been first made known to cultivators about 10 years ago. Many other Illustrations might be given to show that nature does not always arrange that plants should naturally bo found in places the best suited to thoir growth. Is Finlay Lucky or Unlucky? There are persons who believe that death and disaster stalk abroad on Friday, and who have any number of facts at hand to prove thoir position. Well, hero is an array of data gathered by an exchange from which almost anything pro and con may be proved: Leo surrendered on Friday, Moscow was burned on Friday, Washington was born on Friday, Shakespeare was born on Friday, America was discovered on Friday, Richmond was evacuated on Friday, the Bastille was destroyed on Friday, the Mayflower was landed on Friday, Queen Victoria was married on Friday, King Charles I was beheaded on Friday, Fort Sumter was bombarded on Friday, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on Friday, Julius Ctesar was assassinated on Friday, tho battle of Marengo was fought on Friday, tho battle of Waterloo was fought on Friday, Joan of Arc was burned at the ■taka on Friday, tho battle of New Orleans Was fought on Friday, the battle of Bunker Kill was fought on Friday, the Declaration of Independence was signed on Friday. Song Birds at Table. The wealthy gormnnds of Homo cherished a strong partiality for song birds. Both Horace and Martini refer with approval to roast thrush, and Ovid recomInends “a crown of thrushes” as a lover’s present to his mistress. Thrushes’ breasts were one of tho ingredients of the celebrated Apician dish (‘ 1 Patina apiciaua”), which also included mushrooms, sow’s ndder, fish and chickens, rivaling the heterogeneous contents of a gypsy’s ‘‘pot au feu.” Horace relates that the sons of Aerins, to stimulate their appetite for dinner, lunched on “nightingales of monstrous price,” and Varro tolls us of tho aviary of Luoullus, which was also a “sallo a manger,” so that tho epicure gratified his ears and his palate simultaneously, feasting upon tho delicate warblers whose eongenera, unconscious of their coming doom, Were discoursing meanwhile the most exquisite music. Fragrant Flowers. Of the 4,200 kinds of flowers growing la Europe only 420 are odoriferous. Less than one-fifth of tho white kinds, which mini- - ber 1,191, are fragrant, 77 of tho 951 yellow kinds, 84 of tho 823 rod kinds, 81 of the 891 blue kinds, 18 of tho 808 violet blue kinds and 28 of the 240 kinds with combined odors, Royal Longevity^ Oldest of European sovereigns is tho tope, now in his eighty-fourth year. The lug of Denmark is 76; Queen Victoria, . There are half a dozen or more other ' ? '7iOVereign» who r.*o over 79 and nearly o who