od wrapper. The leaf also is
very firm and strong, and sufficiently elastic to bear considerable
manipulating in manufacture. The various shades also of the two
colors, dark and light brown or cinnamon, are among the finest and
most delicate of any to be found among the numerous kinds of tobacco
used for cigars. The color of the wrapper, however, is merely a matter
of taste; when first used for a wrapper the color in demand was a dark
brown or cinnamon, now it is light cinnamon leaf that is the most
fashionable, and leaf of this color is considered the finest and of
the most delicate flavor. As a superior burning tobacco, seed leaf
especially commends itself, and while all of the seed products of the
various states producing this description of tobacco, are remarkable
for their good burning qualities, none are more so than Connecticut
seed leaf.

Thorough cultivation by the growers has made this quality of tobacco
the most profitable of any grown in the United States. Some
considerable controversy has arisen among tobacco-growers concerning
the origin of this famous variety. One opinion sets forth that it
sprung from plants or seeds brought from Virginia, while another is
that tobacco seed from Cuba gave it origin. Most probably the former
theory is correct, as the plant was cultivated in gardens in New
England, during the reign of Charles I.

However this may be, the system of cultivation pursued has been
successful in the production of a leaf tobacco that can hardly be
improved, so far as the texture of the leaf is concerned. Some of the
"selections" of seed leaf have that fine soft feeling peculiar to
satin or silks, and we have seen specimens of such selections, that
seemed almost destitute of veins, or anything that would naturally
suggest that it was a leaf. In this respect it is quite remarkable,
for while the leaf is very large the stem and veins are quite small,
no larger than in many varieties with a much smaller leaf. From its
first cultivation in the Connecticut valley, the quality has gradually
improved until now, and it seems at last to possess almost every
feature desirable in a good wrapper.

[Illustration: Havana tobacco.]

This famous variety of the tobacco plant is by common consent the
finest flavored tobacco for cigars now being cultivated. Some,
however, consider Paraguayian, Brazil, and Mexican coast tobacco its
equals, while, according to Tomlinson, Macuba tobacco, grown on the
island of Ma