x¢,2 Merrill: Flora of Kwangtung Province, China 103 
mm latis, striatis, utrinque minutissime scaberulis, apice tenuiter 
acuminatis, basi latis, cbtusis, abrupte cordatis vel subcordatis, 
margine cartalagineis, scaberulis; paniculis exsertis, 13 ad 20 
cm longis, laxis, ramis paucis, elongatis, solitariis, viridis vel 
purpureis, glabris, tenuibus, paucifloris, inferioribus 10 ad 13 
cm longis, patulis vel adscendentibus; spiculis ellipsoideis, pur- 
pureis, 2 mm longis, longe graciliterque pedicellatis, pedicellis 
glabris, 3 ad 9 mm longis; glumis vacuis glabris, late ellipticis vel 
orbiculari-ellipticis, rotundatis, 7- vel 9-nerviis; florentibus ellip- 
soideis, rotundatis, glabris vel apice minutissime setuloso-pu- 
berulis, 1.8 mm longis, nitidis. 
Loh Fau Mountain (Lofaushan), Merrill 10182, October 28, 1916, on open 
slopes and along small streams, widely scattered, altitude 500 to 1,150 meters. 
A species manifestly allied to Isachne globosa (Thunb.) O. Kuntze (J. 
australis R. Brown), which is very common in swampy places at low 
altitudes in Kwangtung Province, but readily distinguished by its much 
larger size, lax, very much larger panicles, long slender branches and — 
pedicels, and other characters. In aspect it is quite different from Jsachne 
globosa, although it is manifestly allied to it. The description of Isachne 
altissima Debeaux, a copy of which was kindly supplied to me by Mr. 
Tutcher, does not at all conform with the characters of the Loh Fau plant. 
Rendle suspects Debeaux’s species to be a large form of Isachne australis 
KBr. 
ORYZA Linnaeus 
ORYZA SATIVA Linn. Sp. Pl. (1753) 333. 
Kwangtung Province, between Sheklung and Shansaiyen, Merrill 10380, 
October 30, 1916, the wild form. 
To my knowledge the wild form of the rice plant has not previously been 
reported from China, although wild forms are definitely known from var- 
ious parts of India. De Candolle* states: “The five species [varieties] are 
considered by the Chinese as indigenous in China, and it must be admitted 
that this is probably the case with rice, which is in general use, and has 
been so for a long time, in a country intersected by canals and rivers, and 
hence peculiarly favourable to aquatic plants.” He further concludes that 
while the rice plant was a native of both India and of China, that the 
Indians cultivated the rice plant at a date later than the Chinese, thus in- 
volving the assumption that the species must have been a native of some 
part of China. 
The wild form of the rice plant was discovered by me in the low country 
of the Canton delta, where it was observed at several localities in the plain 
between Sheklung and Shanseiyen, the latter place being a village near the 
foot of Loh Fau Mountain. Here it was locally abundant in tanks, water 
holes, and in stagnant streams approximately at sea level. This wild form is 
quite different in habit and appearance from the commonly cultivated forms 
of the rice plant in the Canton delta. The stems, while stout, are rather 
* Origin of Cultivated Plants (1884) 385. 
