SPECIES AND VARIETIES 



ORYZA, /,/,/,..- Wl /;,-. //, /.. , 92-4; Matthioliu, Comm. on 

 Dioscorides, 1565, i., 401-3, and t. ; Runiphius, Herb. Amb., v., 196- 

 201 ; Duthio und Fuller, Field and Garden Crops, 1882, i., 15-20, t. 

 hut hie, Fodd. Crass. N. 2nd., 1888, 20; Lisboa, Bomb. Grass., 1896, 

 37-8 ; Heuze, Le* PI. Aliment. ds Pays Chauds, 1899, 14-116 ; Semler, 

 7Yo/>. Agrik., 1903, iii., 1-48; Prain, Beng. Plants, 1903, ii., 1184; 

 GRAMINEJB. 



While botanical writers have described some twenty species of the 

 genus <>///-./. Beutham and Hooker (Gen. PI., iii., pt. ii., 1117) say that 

 scarcely five of these can be easily distinguished and even these are very 

 generally viewed as varieties of but one species, O. mitira. Linn. The 

 .in.-!' forms are met with in the East Indies, though some are indigenous 

 istralia and most have been widely cultivated from ancient times in 

 tlu- wanner regions of both hemispheres. 



Species and Varieties. There may be said to be four fairly easily 

 lised forms of Orf/za in India : 



Oryza coarctata, Roxb., Fl. 2nd., ii., 206 ; O. triticoidet, Griffiths. Notula PL 

 Aaiat., 1851, pt. iii., 8 ; Icon., t. 142 ; Prain, I.e. ; Fl. Br. Ind., vii., 93. It is 

 iviu-wn as nanoi (Indus valley), natsaba (in Burma) ; maniklal (the plant), and 

 barirdhan (tho grain) in Patuakhali, Dacca. 



In this grass the margins of the leaves are spinosc-serrate. It frequents the 

 margins of rivers and is essentially an aquatic plant. Griffith had grave doubts 

 as to the propriety of treating it as a species of <>ry*a , and suggested the genus 

 .W'|TOIIIII/""". Roxburgh gives the delta of the Ganges as its habitat, and 

 says it wets first discovered there by Buchanan-Hamilton in 1796. He then 

 adds that he had failed to find that the plant was put to any economic use or 

 to discover an Asiatic name for it. 



In 1895 Mr. J. E. O'Conor (at that time Director-General of Statistics) pro- 

 posed to have all the articles of official returns that appeared under " Others " 

 investigated. He undertook to have specimens sent to me for determination. 

 Almost the first, under edible substances, that came to hand was a cereal from 

 Karachi. This was stated to be a wild grain collected from the swampy margins 

 of the Indus and carried all over India to be eaten by the Hindus during certain 

 ceremonial occasions. At first sight it looked like a form of wheat, but Sir George 

 King and Lieut.-Col. D. Prain, who kindly examined it with me, suggested that it 

 most probably would prove a form of rice. Botanical specimens came to hand 

 in June 1895, and were at once seen to be the long-lost species o. ri //. ttoxb., 

 which, because of its resemblance to wheat, had also been called o. triti<-<:i- - 

 Through subsequent investigations this interesting plant was found prevalent 

 in the Indus valley ; nowhere in the river basins of South India ; occasional in 

 the Sundribans (Saugor Island) and the lower Gangetic basin ; and common 

 near Khaton and Moulmein in Burma. It seems probable, however, that the 

 resemblance of the grass to wheat may have originated the belief that wheat 

 was indigenous to the Indus basin. Thus, for example, De Candolle (Orig. 

 Cult. Plants, 356) while discussing the origin of wheat, observes that " Strabo (ed, 

 1707, ii., 1017), born 50 B.C., says that, according to Aristobulus, a grain very 

 similar to wheat grew wild upon the banks of the Indus on the 25th parallel of 

 latitude." And it is certainly remarkable that until tho discoveries briefly 

 narrated above, the wild rice of the Indus should have remained unknown to the 

 botanical world while it was actually being traded in all over India. 



Samples of the nanoi rice were sent to Church (Food-Grains of India, suppl., 

 1907, 5) for chemical examination, and the result showed that it is by no means 

 an unwholesome article of food, though the edible portion, relatively to the husk 

 and fibre, is exceptionally low. The nutrient ratio was found to be 1 : 7'6, while 

 the nutrient value worked out at 84 '9 



O. granulate, Nees. A species found on dry soils at altitudes up to 3,00 

 feet. Specimens have been collected from Sikkim^ Assam, Burma, Bengal 

 (Parisnath and Rajmahal hills), Malabar and Courtallum. It is perennial with 

 almost woody root-stock and thin, round, firm, branching stems. The surface 

 of the inner glume, though glabrous, is rendered woolly-looking through the 

 presence of irregular roundish granulations. 



823 



ORYZA 



Rice 



DAP.. 



, -Urn OM. 



Rice. 



DkMMte 



Indus 

 Valley 

 Wild Rice. 



Distribution. 



Simulate Wbt. 



Wild Hill 

 Rice. 



