Smokiana

Although Smoking is generally associated with Tobacco only, yet there are other plants whose leaves are used for similar purposes & these will be referred to as we come to the different means of using them. Our first Woodcut of Tobacco is from STELLA—ROMA 1669. a work of great value as giving Pipes & the Hookah of Persia as well as Plants but we will start with some of the growths now most generally known of the “NICOTIANA” Family which is very widely spread over the face of the Earth & has of late made great strides in Borneo & Sumatra. We are greatly indebted to old German woodcuts for solid information anent details of Habits & customs of the 16th. Century which our own people have not handed down to us, take for instance “Hans Sachs.” Book of Trades. Had smoking been in vogue in his day he would have given it—or rather Jost Ammon would have illustrated it so here in 1616 A.D. we find a Sturdy German, blowing a tremendous cloud. It is taken from an old work now in Frankfurt—viz