Sparrowhawk:
I'm sure there's probably something on the Internet if you just keep digging.
My personal preference for this, though, is to stick with books. I am constantly recommending Carl Ehwa's Book of Pipes & Tobaccos, the best one-volume book on pipe smoking I've ever read. It's packed with solid information, color photos and tons of historical exhibits. The only caveat is that it was published in the early 1970s, so any changes to the marketplace since then are not covered. (For instance, Ehwa describes Syrian production of latakia as a historical fact, not a current reality. At that point, Syria wasn't producing any latakia. We're currently in that same situation. But there have been some amazing crops in the intervening years.)
I'd also recommend Milton Sherman's All About Tobacco. It's a much shorter book, but it provides some nice material that Ehwa doesn't get into (such as recipes for blending your own mixtures).
Of course, these books are long out of print. But they can often be found at used bookstores as well as on Amazon, ABEBooks.com, and Alibris.com. Amazon currently has a reseller offering Ehwa's book for under $22, which is a real bargain. Sherman's book also can be found there, for less than $10.
BTW: "Defining a Burley from an English for instance."
Burley is a specific type of tobacco. It tends to have a slight nutty flavor but it's mildly flavored enough to make it the go-to leaf when adding aromatic flavorings. It's also known as being the tobacco leaf with the highest nicotine content (among standard, commonly used leaf at least). A variety of burley is used in the creation of perique.
An "English" is a blend of various tobaccos that, historically, has included Virginias and latakia, often orientals as well, and, less frequently, perique. (And latakia, like perique, is not a specific variety of tobacco; it's an oriental leaf that has been cured over smoldering myrtle branches. It's currently produced only in Cyprus. But when we're lucky, it's also produced in Syria; Syrian latakia is more fragrant and "delicate" than the Cypriot variety.)
Bob
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