RICE 603 



mealy; the larger starch grains compound; aleurone 

 cells in a single row, small; embryo scarcely \ as long 

 as the caryopsis; the latter in ordinary rice translucent, 

 sometimes dull, in which cases the outer circumference 

 of the endosperm is mealy, the inner glossy, a condition 

 very rare or lacking in other cereals; in glutinous rice, 

 caryopsis always opaque, and starch grains colored yel- 

 lowish brown instead of violet, in contact with iodine 

 (684). 



679. Origin of rice. Dependent information on the 

 origin of rice is about as scarce as that pertaining to the 

 origin of the other common cereals. The earliest rice 

 cultivation recorded is that referred to in the description 

 by Julien of the ceremony instituted by the Chinese 

 Emperor Chin-nung 2800 years B.C. (39). Two circum- 

 stances, however, appear greatly to reduce the value of 

 this record : (1) Yokoi (1898) maintains that Julien's 

 statement is incorrect, that the ceremony was instituted 

 much later than the time of Chin-nung, and even then 

 rice was not included in the five grains, but was included 

 still later, and thinks rice is not indigenous in China. 

 (2) It is not yet recorded that rice has been found outside 

 of cultivation in that country. In Egypt where other 

 cereals existed in ancient times, there is no record left of 

 any early cultivation of rice. 



Wild rice of the same genus (not Zizania) has been 

 found in several places where there was no rice cultiva- 

 tion. According to Roxburgh, it grows on the shores of 

 lakes in the country of the Circars in India, where it was 

 called Newari by the Telingas. Nivara, an ancient 

 Sanskrit name, apparently applies to the same plant. 

 It has also been observed at Moradabad, in Delhi. 



Wild rice was also discovered, abundant and widely 



