THE CURIOSITY SHOP.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3698, 10 July 1906, Page 4

THE CURIOSITY SHOP.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOBACCO. First Cultivated In Europe ns nu Ornaineo tel Plant. The name tobacco is tium-rlit by muuo to • have been taken fm TcVecc. a pr.-rtrw of Yucatan, by others I’rom Tobago, -- : - Island in the Caribbean sea, and by still others from Tobasco, in the gulf of Flor- : Ida. The plant, although it is asserted that the Chinese have used it from earliest times, was not introduced into Europe until after the discovery of America by Columbus. Ho first found it in use on the island of San Domingo in the West Indies. The Indian, among all the tribes from Peru to upper Canada, smoked it in pipes. The seed of the plant was first introduced in Europe by Gonaalo Hernandez lie 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 soon became general, and its manufacture into snuff followed In course of time. It was Introduced in Italy and France In llfßO and was brought Into tho latter country by Joan Nicot, the French embassador to Portugal, in whose honor it received its botanical name, nicotlana, whence tho name nicotine. The plant was introduced into England by Sir Walter Raleigh. It was along in the seventeenth century before it was known to be used in Asia, but the oriental nations at the present time are probably tho greatest smokers in the world, accord ing to Thol'no. Leprosy la the Middle Ages. In the middle ages leprosy extended over live whole of Europe. Nearly every city in England, France and Germany had itg hospital for such cases, and Italy suffered terribly from iho disease. Tho niaxlmtilh was reached in 1300, when there were 19,000 leper houses in Europe. The patients were excommunicated by papal “bulls.” They were cut off as “unclean” from intercourse of all sorts, and only in this way was tho plague gradually suppressed. IS disappeared as an epidemic in Europe In the sixteenth CehtUty. A writer in the New York Times says: 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, on Madagascar, Mauritius, fit. Helena and Madeira, in Mexico and Central and South America. Such sufferers are found in Europe at present, hs, fof example, in Norway, Where there v. ere 1,600 lepers id 1880 out of a population of 1,830,000, though this was a decrease from 2,1180 in ISO 4. They are also found on tho Greek islands of 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 Itesi I’huifcr; Although not generally recognized in botanical and horticultural works, Meehan’s Monthly says it Is simply a fact that nature docs not always place plants In the localities best suited to their development. Swamp trees, for instance —bees which grow parHy in water — grow a great deal better, mova vigorously and every way apparently mere Happily when they can find thou, waive:; in dry gfound, for SpholmenS of Hiapte.-, wiiiow.-. sweet gums and other juppe-aud ; w.imp u-ees are always found in soj.iparaiivl.v diy ground. What is known as the liwmuda lily is another case in point. Thts is a native of Japan, really Liiium Km.'diloi urn. but nowhere docs It grow in :«•:•••;! in -inn."- as in. the Islands of Bermuda, wh- :v. it v.,..- accidentally in-r.mhu.,;-.l i,r escaped from cultivation a .jr-ai. iik.'ii y- w. ago. .‘Jo groat is Us luxvh: i h ..as been recognized ns a !;■«•! v-tj.Viy iVum tho Japan plant and '.ii-.'Sn In oi'j-.iva<i,ou «m icl-.um hat-

h-.ffiigl'tK'n ills? made knoiva iooul--Ivalors niio.-; 10 years ago. Many other lii.siTai i,>;iy might he given to show that liicmv- does hot .l ways arrange that plants non lei naturally be found in place® the ••'.si suited to their growth. Is Fi i:oiy Lucky or Unlucky? There are person* who believe that death .1 disaster stalk abroad on Friday, and ho hu\ e :uiy number of facts at hand to vo their position. Well, hero is an ary of did." Uered bran exchange from 'rich idmo.a anything pro and con may proved; f.ee surrendered on Ki-iday, '■:;«nv we , to. we on Friday, fc’.-e-lung-**i was i on Friday, Shakespeare whs on Friday, America was discovered ;; Friday, Uichnu...d was evacuated on riti.iy, the Dnstbic was destroyed on Frier. ti'.e iMe.y.;..v.v-r was landed on Friday, , V iovnria. v;■; m.a: ried on Friday, ‘.in'; Oh;u-F.w. 1 wan beileaded o?i Friday, Sumter v.es bombarded cm Friday, i; j'.oieoi! Jionnpanj was ho i on Friday, .i uiiu:. (Avar was assassinated na Friday, Ui" InvM.lt- 1 si' Marengo was fought on Frilay, the battle of Waterloo was fought on Friday, Joan of Are was burned at the e.it-kb on Friday, the battle of New Orleans was fought ch Friday, the battle of Bunker Kill was fought on Friday, the Declaration ■i Independence was signed on Friday, Song Birds at Table. The wealthy gonnands of Koine cherished a strong partiality for song birds. Both Horace and Martial refer with approval to roast thrush, and Ovid recommends “a crown of .thrushes” as a lover’s present to his mistress. Thrushes’ breasts were one of the ingredients of the celebrated Apician dish (‘ Patina apiciana”), which also included mushrooms, sow’s odder, fish and chickens, rivaling the heterogeneous contents of a gypsy’s ‘-pot au fen. ” Horace relates that the sons of Aortas, to stimulate their appetite for dinner, lunched on '‘nightingales of monstrous price, ” and Varro tells us of the aviary of Lucidlus, which was also a ‘ - salle a monger, ” fio that the epicure gratified his ears and his palate simultaneously, feast- i lag upon the delicate warblers whoso con- , geuers; unconscious of their coming doom, , were discoursing meanwhile the most exquisite music. Fragrant Flowers. Of the 4,200 kinds of flowers growing in ! Europe only AIO are odoriferous. Less tiuin one-fifth of tho white kinds, which num- ■ her 1,194, .are fragrant, 77 of Fie 951 yellow I kinds, 84 of the Spired kinds, HI of the 59-1 j bine kinds, 13 of the Buti va blue kinds I and 128 of thesMO kinds with combined , colors. V. (.;,•!< i [.imgc-vit.v. Oldest c ( f European sovereigns is the | pope, iriw in FA Agbiy-fo h year. The ’ king of D-nr-ia:-;. is ,-.-n Victoria, ! 74. Then? aa- half a dozen or more other j sovcm;.-’*- e-;v>' are or-- 7-) rrA navr-.v a J thwim vi , v"« ■ oo uad 70.