702 



KICASOLI 



RICE 



particularly liU own, always commanded respect, 

 and had a very considerable inllucnce. I Yrxm.il ly 

 he was highly esteemed. His method in poUttod 

 economy u now almost iniivenially abandoned. 

 Eicn tin- strongest supiiorters of the traditional. v 

 doctrines acknowledge that the value of hi- 

 formulas have been greatly overrated, and must 

 undergo continual limitation, modification, and 

 correction in the light of experience and of his- 

 tone conditions. Yet his theories are eminently 

 worthy of .study, both as a phase in the develop- 

 ment of economic science, and as illustrating a 

 stage in the development of economic facts. The 

 collected works of Kicardo were edited by M'Culloeh 

 (1846), and his Letters to Maltkua were published 

 in 1887. 



Itifiisoli. BARON BKTTIXO, Italian statesman, 

 was born at Florence, 9th March 1809, and 

 studied at Pisa and Florence. He wag one of 

 the best a^ricultuii-ts in Italy, wrote books on 

 the cultivation of the vine, the olive, and tin' 

 mulberry, and for ten years worked successfully at 

 the drainage of the 1'uscan Mareiuma (q.v. ). In 

 1859 he took a prominent part in opposing the 

 government of the grand -duke (see ITALY), and 

 when the latter fled Kicasoli was made dictator 

 of Tuscany. He lalwured with great energy for 

 the unity of Italy, and when that end was accom- 

 plished wa* by Victor Emmanuel a|>|xiinted gover- 

 nor-general of Tuscany. On the death of Cavour 

 ( 1861 ) he was called to the head of the ministry ; 

 but his government was undermined by Rattazzi, 

 ami he resigned in March lSti'2. Kicasoli returned 

 to power in June 1866, but was again obliged to 

 retire in April of the following year. At the same 

 time he withdrew altogether from public life ; he 

 di-d in Koine, 23d Octolter 1880. Ten volumes of 

 his letters and papers were published in 1886-94. 

 See Life by < ;..ni \ 1H94). 



Riccl, MATTEO, founder of the Jesuit missions 

 in China, was bom at Macerata, 6th October l.'i.vj, 

 studied at Home, and in 1583 obtained leave to 

 settle at Chow- king. He nrade his headquarters 

 at Nanking, but was ultimately allowed to remove 

 to I'eking, where he built a church. He so 

 mastered Chinese as to write dialogues and other 

 treatises which received much commendation from 

 the Chinese literati, and met with extraordinary 

 success as a missionary. At his death, llth May 

 1610, he was universally mourned. See JESUITS, 

 Vol. VI. p. 314, 



Rircio, or RIZZIO, DAVID. SeeMvm 1,11 i IN 

 OF SCOTS. 



Rire(Oryza), a genus of grasses, having panicles 

 of one-flowered spikelete, with two very small 

 pointed glumes, the florets compressed, the paleni 

 strongly nerved, awned or awnless, six stamens, 

 one germen, and two feathery stigmas. The Greek 

 name oryza is, according to Skeat, from an old 

 Persian word akin to the Sanskrit vrihi, a 

 word which passed into Arabic as iiruz or a, 

 whence the Spanish form arroz. The only im- 

 portant species is the Common Rice (0. tut 

 one of the most useful and extensively cultivated 

 of all grains, supplying the principal food of nearly 

 one-third of the litiman race. It seems to lie 

 originally a native of the East Indies, but is now 

 cultivated in all quarters of the globe, and almost 

 wherever the conditions of warmth and moisture 

 are suitable. It is adapted to tropical and sub- 

 tropical climates, rather to the latter than the 

 former ; and requires much moisture, rather, how- 

 ever, in the soil than in the air. Rice is an annual, 

 varying from 1 to (i feet in height. There are 

 many other distinguishing characters of the varie- 

 ties in cultivation, some having long awns and 

 ome being awnless, some having the chaff (/i/z), 



Rice ( Oryza tad' ra ) : 



b, a panicle in seed ; c, a 



ffower ; d, a seed. 



when ripe, yellow, white, red, black, &c. The 

 seed or grain of rice grows on little separate stalks 

 springing from the main stalk ; and the whole 

 appearance of tin- plan!, when the grain is ripe, 

 may be said to be intermediate between that of 

 luirley and of oats. Rice requires a moist soil, 

 sometimes flooded ; and the 

 cultivation has in many 

 places been attended witli 

 an increase of intermittent 

 fevers and of general un- 

 healthiness, the rice-fields 

 li.-iii^ artificially flooded at 

 certain seasons. In some 

 parts of the East canals are 

 carried along the sides of 

 hills for the irrigation of 

 land for the cultivation of 

 rice. In South Carolina 

 rice is sown in rows in the 

 liottom of trenches, which 

 are about 18 inches apart ; 

 the trenches are filled with 

 water to the depth of several 

 inches, till the seeds ger- 

 minate ; then the water is 

 drawn off, and afterwards 

 the fields are again flooded 

 for rather more than a fort- 

 night U) kill weeds. They 

 are flooded again when the 

 grain is near ripening. In 

 Europe the cultivation of 

 rice is most extensively 

 carried on in the plains of 

 l.omliaiily and in Valencia in Spain. Marshy 

 situations, where there is always the same abund- 

 ance of water, are not so suitable for rice as those 

 in which the supply of water is regulated accord- 

 ing to the season and the growth of the plain. 

 The best of all rice known in the market fur si/e 

 and quality is that of Carolina, yet the introduc- 

 tion of rice into the United States took place only 

 about the middle or close of the 17th century ; for 

 the date has been disputed, 1694 being the earliest 

 year in which it is Known to have been grown. 

 Rice in the husk is culled Paddy in India. 



The wild rice, plentiful in tlie marshy tropical 

 countries of southern Asia as well as in northern 

 Australia, is without doubt the plant from which 

 all our forms of cultivated rice have been derived. 

 Most modern authorities regard India as the first 

 home of rice, though some sav it was originally 

 derived from China. It has Wen cultivated in 

 India from time immemorial. At the Calcutta 

 Exhibition of 1884, 4000 apparently distinct forms 

 of Bengal rice were shown, arising from diM'erences 

 of climate and varieties of soil. There are 1400 

 different specimens of rice in the Calcutta Museum. 

 There are as many as 1300 names of rice, and 

 though very many of these are merely local syno- 

 nyms, u large number unquestionably correspond 

 to intrinsic ami seasonal distim lions. TheobrioU 

 differences in the grain itself are indeed very re- 

 markable. In colour the specimens range from a 

 bright golden hue through almost every gradation 

 of tint to black ; and in regard to size also they 

 vary greatly. But all these forms of rice are refer- 

 able to a very few well-marked ami constant 

 varieties of 0. sntira, the result of seminal varia- 

 tion commonly observed in plants that have been 

 long brought under cultivation. The rice exported 

 from India is divided broadly into three qualities 

 ( 1 ) table rice ; (2) liallam, named after the boats in 

 which it in carried ; and (3) moonghy, common or 

 inferior rice. Cargo rice is that in wliich only one 

 pan in five is husked. In llriti-.li India there are 

 more than 60 million acres under rice ; in Cej-loi:, 



