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July 1, 1953
Berkaley 4, California

Dr. E. D. Merrill
The Arnold Arboretum
Harvard University
Jamaica Plain, Mass.

Dear Dr. Merrill:

A week ago, and in hast, I wrote you and sent portions of the galley proofs
of my Nicotiana monograph. In a recent letter Verdoorn refers to your being
in Maine but I hope what I sent has reached you.

Enclosed is something from van Nouhuys. I was not aware of the 1599 Ternate
reference to tobacco. It must have been about 1910-12 that the expedition
(name of the leaders escapes me at the moment) which used a hydroplane to get
into the interior of New Guinea sent herbarium material and seed of tobacco,
grown there, to Satchell. The plants we grew and the herbarium specimens were
N. tabacum. As I remember it the variety involved was close to the first il-
lustrations of tobacco in the herbals. It should be possible to verify the above
statements if of interest to you or they may be familiar to you.

Unfortunately, there is nothing in our herbarium re N. rustica. Sauer says
(p. 46) that it was "grown from Chile to Quebec." I fear that for the west
coast of South America aboriginal cultivation data he must have relied upon
Ricardo Latcham's (cf. p. 59) amazing book on pre-Columbian agriculture (which
however, he does not cite). Latcham, an Englishman, sold lamps in Santiago
for a long time, became interested in archeology and through the influence of
his Chilean wife became Director of the National Museum -- enough said about
the botany in his book! S. includes N. rustica and tabacum under "Tropical
hearth"and his hypothetical place of origin is wrong in both cases.

Is it possible that S. does not know (same page) that Lonchocarpus nicou is
still a "wild" plant in the Peruvian montana as well as somewhat grown by the
Indians there? I'm sure that I have seen it, more than once, in flower. Also
(same page) was and is Erythroxylon coca cultivated "through the south side of
the Caribbean" and doesn't he know that it and related (coca producing)
species occur north and east of the "Peruvian Andes" (where, in fact, it cannot be
grown)?

I surely hope that you, who can speak with such authority, will give our
"pontificate" pause and send me a reprint.

When convenient I would like to have the proof and illustrations returned.

With best wishes

Sincerely,

T.G.T