Oryza. hexandria digyNia. 201 



Dhan the Bengalee name of the plant, and the unhusk- 

 ed rice, and Chaul the clean rice. 



Uri the generic Telinga name of the cultivated sorts. 

 Urloo the grain in the husk ; and Biani the grain, or 

 rice. Newaree of the Telingas is the plant in its wild 

 state. 



This original stock is always found wild in and about 

 the borders of lakes throughout the Circars, is never cul- 

 tivated so far as I can learn, because the produce, they 

 say, is small^ compared to that of the varieties in cultiva- 

 tion. 



Root fibrous, annual. Culms numerous, near the base 

 floating, or creeping, with the extremities erect, they are 

 jointed, round and smooth, from two to eight or ten feet 

 long, according to the depth of the water. Leaves 

 sheathing, long, and slender, backwardly scabrous; 

 mouth of the sheaths crowned with a large, conical, 

 membranaceous, lacerated process. This process, ligula, 

 or stipule, is common to all the varieties I have examin- 

 ed. Panicle terminal, thin, bowing when the seed is 

 weighty. Rachis common, and partial, angular, and his- 

 pid. Flowers single, pediceiled. Calyx and corol as 

 described in the Genera plantarum, except that here the 

 large valve of the calyx ends in a very long hispid, co- 

 loured awn. Nectary, two falcate bodies embracing the 

 posterior half of the germ which are common to all the 

 varieties. Stamens six. 



The rice of the wild sort above described, is remark- 

 ably white, palatable, and reckoned very wholesome ; so 

 that it is carefully gathered, and sells dear. The rich 

 esteem it a dainty ; and to make it still more delicate, 

 they boil it only in steam. A coarse kind of confec- 

 tion, called beat rice, is made of it, and sold in most ba- 

 zars. 



Adepts in agriculture in England and Scotland say 

 there is no such thing in nature as perpetual fertility, 



