XXIV. 



RICE. 



I. STRUCTURE AND VARIETIES. 



501. Relationships. — Rice {Oryza sativa L.) belongs to the 

 tribe Oryzeae, In some respects it is rather more closely re- 

 lated to maize and sorghum than to the other cereals. There 

 are a number of species of the genus Oryza growing wild in 

 the tropics of both hemispheres. To this tribe also belongs 

 wild rice {Zizania aqitatica L.), sometimes called Canada rice 

 and sometmies referred to as "the reeds," the f~Jt furnishing 

 food for the reed birds or bobolinks. The wild rice plant is ar 

 annual, grows usually from five to eight feet in length above 

 water, and bears a cylindrical panicle one to two feet long. 

 The flowering glume is bearded and encloses a slender cylin- 

 drical kernel varying in length from a half to almost an inch, 

 and is of dark slate color when ripe. It grows somewhat exten- 

 sively in marshy places throughout North America, as well as 

 northeastern Asia, particularly around the region of the Great 

 Lakes, where the Indians collected it m large quantities for food 

 and even sowed it rather extensively. Wild rice furnishes a 

 nutritious and an acceptable food. Although prolific, the ten- 

 dency to shatter its seed upon ripening will probably prevent 

 its general cultivation.* 



Another species of wild rice {Zizania viiliacea Mx.) is 

 common in the Southern States, especially in the bayous of 

 Louisiana. No use is made of the seeds, but it is said that tw^o 

 crops of good hay may be cut from it annually. 



* For further account of wild rice see The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper 

 Lakes. By Albert Ernest Tenks ; extract from the 19th Ann. Rpt. of the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology. 



