rich IJORTUS 3AMAICENSIS. 117 



RICE. ORYZA. 



Cl. &, or. 2. Hexandria digijnia. NaT. or. Gramina. 



Gf.x. HAR. -Calys a one-flowered, two-valved r glume, vey small, acuminate, 

 almost equal ; corolla two-valved ; valves boat-shaped, concave, compressed, the 

 larger five-angled, awned ; nectary two-leaved, flat on one side of the germ, very 

 small, leaflets narrow at tlve base, truncate at the tip, caducous ; stamens six fila- 

 ments, capillary,, the length of the corolla ; anthers hi lid at the base; the pistil 

 has a turbinate germ, two capillary styles, reflex ; stigmas club-shaped, feathered ; 

 there is no pericarp, corolla growing to the seed, oval-oblong, compressed, mar- 

 gins thin, two streaks on each side ; seed single, large, oblong, blunt, cora- 

 pressed, with two streaks on each side.- There is only one species* 



fATlVA. common. 



On/za. Sloane, v. 1, p. 103. Culmo substr-iafo nodosa, parti 

 sparsa. Browne, p. 203. 



Rice has the culm from one to six feet in length, annual, erect, simple, round, 

 jointed; leaves subulate-linear, reflex, embracing, not fleshy ; in a tern 



ing panicle; calycine leaflets lanceolate ; valves of the corolla equal it I 

 inner valve even, awn less ; the outer twice as wide, foar-grooved, i 

 style single, two-parted. This valuable plant is cultivated largely boti . and 



America; but, though it thrives well in man v parts of Jamaica, lias been almost alto- 

 gether neglected. The Chinese make a wine of it, which is of an amber colour, and 

 tastes-like Spanish wine ; a strong brandy or spirit is a>so drawn from it. Trie flour of 

 rice has lately been found a great corrector of damaged wheat flour, by mixing ten 

 pounds of the latter with one of the former, to be made into bread in 

 manner. 



This plant thrives extremely well in moist bottoms between 'the mountains, Ft ought 

 only to be cultivated in places where the ground can be flooded with water. The 

 marshy grounds therefore in this island, such as those at the Ferry, in St Andrew's, 

 the east end ot St. Thomas in the East, the lands about Black-Rivi r in St, Elizabeth's, 

 Negril in Westmorland, and other similar parts, appear naturally adapted to this 

 grain, if it should be thought worth while to cultivate it, as an a< m supply of 

 food for the negroes. Long, p. 768. 



Rice grows as well in America as it doth in Africa and other part?, About twenty 

 years past, I sowed some in a moist parcel of ground in Jamaica; but, happening to 

 plant out of time, it grew very rank, and did not bear. 1 cut it down close to the 

 ground, and gave it to my horses, who eat it as well as Guinea-corn bla ;s. After- 

 wards it .grew up, and, at the usual or proper time, it bore an extraordinary. qnai . v 

 of grain, which was bearded like barley, which with its outward husk is taken off, 

 and then it is quite white. The Spaniards and Portuguese call it arras, of which they 

 make a spirit called arrack ; the Arabians call it arz, and arzi. It is cooling and re- 

 stringent ; an emulsion made of it is good against the strangury from cantharidesj the 

 fee meal or flour takes away the marks of the small-pox. Jfarham, p. 159. 



RINGWOR33 



