What is "nicotiana tabacum"

Tobacco \To*bac"co\, n. [Sp. tabaco, fr. the Indian tabaco the tube or pipe in which the Indians or Caribbees smoked this plant. Some derive the word from Tabaco, a province of Yucatan, where it was said to be first found by the Spaniards; others from the island of Tobago, one of the Caribbees. But these derivations are very doubtful.]

1. (Bot.) An American plant ( Nicotiana Tabacum) of the Nightshade family, much used for smoking and chewing, and as snuff. As a medicine, it is narcotic, emetic, and cathartic. Tobacco has a strong, peculiar smell, and an acrid taste.

   Note: The name is extended to other species of the genus, and to some unrelated plants, as Indian tobacco ( Nicotiana rustica, and also Lobelia inflata), mountain tobacco ( Arnica montana), and Shiraz tobacco ( Nicotiana Persica).

2. The leaves of the plant prepared for smoking, chewing, etc., by being dried, cured, and manufactured in various ways. Tobacco box (Zo["o]l.), the common American skate. Tobacco camphor. (Chem.) See Nicotianine. Tobacco man, a tobacconist. [R.] Tobacco pipe.

   1. A pipe used for smoking, made of baked clay, wood, or other material.

   2. (Bot.) Same as Indian pipe, under Indian.

      Tobacco-pipe clay (Min.), a species of clay used in making tobacco pipes; -- called also cimolite.

      Tobacco-pipe fish. (Zo["o]l.) See Pipemouth.

      Tobacco stopper, a small plug for pressing down the tobacco in a pipe as it is smoked.

      Tobacco worm (Zo["o]l.), the larva of a large hawk moth ( Sphinx Carolina syn. Phlegethontius Carolina). It is dark green, with seven oblique white stripes bordered above with dark brown on each side of the body. It feeds upon the leaves of tobacco and tomato plants, and is often very injurious to the tobacco crop. See Illust. of Hawk moth.

Nicotine \Nic"o*tine\ (? or ?), n. [F. nicotine. See Nicotian.] (Chem.) An alkaloid which is the active principle of tobacco ( C10H14N2). It occurs in tobacco plants ( Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana rusticum) to the extent of 2 to 8%, in combination with malic acid or citric acid. It is a colorless, transparent, oily liquid, having an acrid odor, and an acrid burning taste. It is intensely poisonous. The apparently addictive effects of tobacco smoking have been ascribed largely to the effect of nicotine, and the controlled administration of nicotine on various forms has been used as a technique for assisting efforts to stop the smoking habit.
--Ure.

Nicotiana tabacum, or cultivated tobacco, is an annually-grown herbaceous plant. It is found only in cultivation, where it is the most commonly grown of all plants in the Nicotiana genus, and its leaves are commercially grown in many countries to be processed into tobacco. It grows to heights between 1 and 2 meters. Research is ongoing into its ancestry among wild Nicotiana species, but it is believed to be a hybrid of Nicotiana sylvestris, Nicotiana tomentosiformis, and possibly Nicotiana otophora.