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Economic Botany Collections
The New Guinea Collection
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| Native tobacco |
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There are around 67 known tobacco species in the genus Nicotiana, the majority of which are native to the Americas although roughly 25% are found wild in Australia and the South Pacific. Of these, only two varieties have ever been cultivated; Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana rustica. Europeans were first introduced to the drug in 1492 on Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the New World. Seeds were brought back to Europe, where it worked its way across the continent and became an intrinsic part of many cultures. The Portuguese were particularly responsible for its spread, as the foremost trading nation of the sixteenth century, and cultivated it in their colonies in Brazil. By 1600, all of the fashionable society in Britain smoked, although the habit was very expensive. The most popular species smoked today is Nicotiana tabacum. Tobacco was likely to have been introduced to New Guinea long before the visit of the H.M.S. Challenger, and the leaves collected here may be from a native wild species, or from an introduced cultivated species. The inhabitants were familiar with Western style cigars as well as this native tobacco, as this passage in H.N. Moseley’s book ‘A Naturalist on the Challenger’ describes. ‘Just as the anchor was let go in 15 fathoms, a light appeared on the water close to the ship, and a canoe was evidently reconnoitring us…The only word we caught was “sigor,” “sigor!”…Sigor being supposed to mean “tobacco”, a cigar was let down with a line and immediately taken and lighted, and more were shouted for, and two cocoanuts…were fastened to the line, to be drawn up in exchange.’ “Sigor” in fact meant “iron”, the trade item most highly prized by the New Guineans, but the cigars were evidently also acceptable. Back to New Guinea: Early Explorers |
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