O R Y 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



ORY 



1. Orontium Aquaticum. Leaves lanceolate-ovate, float- 

 ing, stalked. They arc like those of the Lily of the Valley, 

 green on the upper side, and covered with very minute hairs, 

 so that they look like tiue velvet. Spikes solitary, on long sim- 

 ple stalks, consisting of numerous, crowded, sessile, green- 

 ish-white flowers. Cattle, hogs, and deer, are very fond 

 of the leaves in the spring, and they come out among the 

 earliest. The Indians gather the seeds, and eat them when 

 dried like peas, boiling them repeatedly in water before they 

 are fit for use : they also boil them in milk or butter, and 

 use them instead of bread ; they call the plant, Taw-kee. 

 It flowers in June, and grows plentifully in the marshes near 

 moist and low grounds, in Virginia, Canada, and other pro- 

 vinces of North America. 



2. Orontium Japonicum. Leaves ensiform, veined ; scape 

 round, smooth, upright, from a finger to a palm in height ; 

 flowers at the top of the scape distinct, in an oblong spike, an 

 inch in length. It differs from the preceding in having much 

 longer leaves, attenuated below, and marked with several 

 raised veins, and a shorter scape. It flowers in January. 

 Native of Japan. 



Orpine. See Sedutn and Telephium. 



Ortegia ; a genus of the class Triandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth five-leaved, 

 erect, with oval leaflets, membranaceous at the edge, per- 

 manent. Corolla: none. Stamina: filamenta three, awl- 

 shaped, shorter than the calix ; autheree linear, compressed, 

 shorter than the filamenta. Pistil: germen ovate, three-sided 

 at the top ; style filiform, almost the length of the calix ; 

 stigma blunt-headed. Pericarp : capsule ovate, three-cor- 

 nered above, one-celled, three-valved at the top. Seeds: 

 very many, extremely small, oblong, sharp at both ends. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: five-leaved. Corolla: 



none. Capsule: one-celled. Seeds: very many. The 



species are, 



1. Ortegia Hispanica; Spanish Ortegia. Stem branched ; 

 peduncles many-flowered. Root round, knobbed, descend- 

 ing, with branched fibres in the lower part ; stems several, 

 a foot high, thickened at the joints, which are red and dis- 

 tant; branches from bottom to top, decussately opposite, 

 erect, subdivided ; flowers herbaceous, small, so close 

 as to appear to be glomerate, on very short peduncles. It 

 flowers in July, and is a low, trailing, annual plant. Native 

 of Spain. 



2. Ortegia Dichotoma ; Forked Ortegia. Stem dichoto- 

 mous ; peduncles one flowered ; root perennial ; flowers in 

 forked panicles, greenish. Native of Italy. 



Oryza ; a genus of the class Hexandria, order Digynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: glume one-flowered, two- 

 valved, very small, acuminate, almost equal. Corolla : two- 

 valved ; valves boat-shaped, concave, compressed, the larger 

 five-angled, awned ; nectary two-leaved, flat, on one side of 

 the germen, very small ; leaflets narrow at the base, truncate 

 at the top, caducous. Stamina: filamenta six, capillary, the 

 length of the corolla ; antherse bifid at the base. Pistil : 

 germen. turbinate ; styles two, capillary, reflex ; stigmas club- 

 shaped, feathered. Pericarp : none ; corolla growing to the 

 seed, oval-oblong-, compressed ; margins thin, two streaks on 

 each side. Seed: single, large, oblong, blunt, compressed, 

 with two streaks on each side. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix : glume two-valved, one-flowered. Corolla : two- 



valved, almost equal, growing to the seed. The only 



known species is, 



1. Oryza Saliva; Common Rice. This plant has the culm 

 from one to six feet in height, and it is annual, erect, sim- 

 ple, round, jointed ; leaves subulate, linear, reflex, embrac- 

 VOL, II. 84. 



ing, not fleshy ; flowers in a terminating panicle ; calicine 

 leaflets lanceolate ; valves of the corolla equal in length ; the 

 inner valve even, awnless ; the outer twice as wide, four- 

 grooved, hispid, awned ; style single, two-parted. Rice 

 has a culm generally about four feet high, and is cut from six 

 to eight months after planting: it is cultivated in marshes, 

 and withers with drought, or in a small degree of saltness. 

 The Dry, or Mountain Rice, has a culm three feet high ; 

 panicle spiked; spikes branching; fruit turgid, brownish-red, 

 with shorter awns ; it ripens and is cut in the fourth month 

 from planting. It is cultivated in the hilly parts of Java, and 

 in many of the Eastern islands, where no water but rain can 

 come : it is planted in the beginning of the rainy season, and 

 reaped in the beginning of the dry season. The natives call 

 it Paddy Gunung, which signifies Mountain Rice. It is 

 wholly unknown in the western parts of India, but is culti- 

 vated in Cochin-china, where it thrives in dry light soils, on 

 the sides of hills, not requiring more moisture than the usual 

 rains and dews (which are not plentiful at the season of its 

 vegetation) supply. The varieties of Rice, like those of other 

 cultivated grain, are innumerable : they differ in the time of 

 springing, growth, and maturity, in the sort of soil that they 

 require, in the form and colour of the seed, and probably in 

 other characters, if they were carefully examined. It is culti- 

 vated in great abundance all over India, where the country 

 will admit of being flooded, in the southern provinces of 

 China, Cochin-china, Cambodia, Siam, and Japan; in which 

 last country it is very white, and of the best quality. In Caro- 

 lina it has long been a staple commodity ; owing, it is said, to a 

 small bag of Paddy given as a present by a treasurer of the 

 East India Company's to a Carolina trader. A Dutch vessel, 

 from Madagascar, is also said to have imported Rice into the 

 same province ; and to this, the two different sorts are attri- 

 buted. It has also been introduced into cultivation in the south- 

 ern kingdoms of Europe, as Italy, Spain, the south of France, 

 and within a few years into Hungary. Its native country 

 is unknown. Propagation and Culture. Much of the low 

 grounds in the middle and southern provinces of China is ap- 

 propriated to the culture of Rice ; which constitutes the princi- 

 pal partof the food of all those who are not so indigent as to be 

 forced to subsist on cheaper kinds of gf ain. A great proportion 

 of the surface of the country is well adapted to the production 

 of Rice. Many and great rivers fun through the several pro- 

 vinces of China; the low grounds bordering on these rivers 

 are annually inundated, by which means a rich mud or muci- 

 lage is brought upon their surface, that fertilizes the soil in 

 the same manner as Egypt is by the overflowing of the Nile. 

 After the mud has lain some days, preparations are made 

 for planting Rice, by inclosing a small spot of ground ,by a 

 bank of clay : the earth is ploughed up, and an upright 

 harrow, with a row of wooden ping in the lower end, is drawn 

 slightly over it by a buffalo. The grain, previously steeped 

 in dung diluted with animal water, is then very thickly sown 

 upon it. A thin sheet of water is ifomediatly brought over 

 it, either by channels for drawing wator from a higher ground, 

 or from lower by means of a chain-pump, the use of which 

 is as familiar as that of a hoe to every Chinese husbandman. 

 In a few days the shoots appear above the water ; and in 

 that interval the remainder of the ground intended for cul- 

 tivation, if stiff, is ploughed, the lumps broken by hoes, and 

 the surface levelled by the harrow. As soon as the shoots 

 have attained the hejght of six or seven inches, they are 

 plucked up by the roots, the tops of the blades cut off, and 

 each root is planted separately, sometimes in small furrows 

 turned with the plough, and sometimes in holes made in rows 

 by a drilling stick made for that purpose. The roots are 

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