GRASSES OF IOWA. 



105 



3. ORYZA. 



Oryza. L. Sp. PI. 333. 1753. Endlicher. Gen. PI. 78. Bentham & 

 Hooker Gen. PI. 3: 1116. Hackel in Engler & Prantl. Nat. Pflanz Kara. II. 

 2: 41. f.37. Scribner. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agrl. Div. Agros. 20: 49. f. 34. 



Padia. Zoll. & Mor. Verz PI. Zoll. 103. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Spikelets i-flowered, hermaphrodite, strongly flattened laterally, in 

 terminal panicles; rachilla articulated below the empty glumes. Glumes 

 3, the first two small, empty: the third compressed, keeled, somewhat 

 rigid, usually awned. Palea i -nerved, nar- 

 rower, but about the length of the glume. 

 Stamens 6. Grain oblong, obtuse, closely 

 enveloped by the fruiting glume. Aquatic 

 grasses with flat knives and terminal pan- 

 icles. 



About twenty species have been de- 

 scribed ; the number has been reduced to six 

 by Hackel. Found chiefly in the tropical 

 regions of both hemispheres; India and 

 China. Cultivated rice (Oryza sativa) 

 has been in cultivation in China since an- 

 cient times; introduced into southern 

 Europe by the Arabs; cultivated in the 

 Carolinas since the seventeenth century. 

 In addition to its culture in the West In- 

 dies and South America, it is also cultivated 

 in the Philippines. It :'< the most impor- 

 tant cereal of China, Japan and India. The 

 upland rice is grown farther north than the 



other type, which needs a great deal of 



. . . Fig. 74. Oryza sativa. (After 



water to produce the best crops. Neea-Hackel.) 



TRIBE VII. PHALARIDEAE. 



Spikelets more or less laterally compressed, one or rarely three- 

 flowered; glumes five, the first two empty and below the articulation of 



