216 



OSB 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



OS M 



about a foot asunder. Water is brought over them a second 

 time, for the convenience of irrigation ; and to regulate its 

 proportion, the Rice-fields are subdivided by narrow ridges 

 of clay into small inclosures. Through a channel in each 

 ridge, the water is conveyed at will to every subdivision. As 

 the Rice approaches to maturity, the water by evaporation 

 and absorption disappears entirely ; and the crop, when ripe, 

 covers dry ground. The first harvest in the southern pro- 

 vinces is towards the end of May or beginning of June. 

 The instrument for reaping is a small-toothed sickle; the 

 sheaves are placed regularly in frames, two of which, sus- 

 pended at the extremities of a bamboo pole, are carried across 

 the shoulders of a man to the place where it is to be thrashed. 

 This operation is performed not only by a flail, or by the 

 treading of cattle, but sometimes also by striking it against 

 a plank set upon its edge, or by beating it against the side 

 of a large tub scolloped for that purpose, the back and sides 

 being much higher than the front, to prevent the grain from 

 being dispersed. After being winnowed, it is carried to the 

 granary. To remove the skin or husk of Rice, a large strong 

 earthen vessel, or hollow stone, in form somewhat like that 

 which is used elsewhere for filtering water, is fixed firmly in 

 the ground, and the grain placed upon it is struck with a 

 conical stone fixed to the extremity of a lever, and cleared 

 (sometimes indeed imperfectly) from the husk. The same 

 object is attained by passing the grain between two flat stones 

 of a circular form, the upper of which turns round upon the 

 other, but at such a distance from it as not to break the 

 grain. The operation is performed on a larger scale in mills 

 turned by water ; the axis of the wheel carrying several arms, 

 which raise levers by striking upon the end of them. Some- 

 times twenty of these levers are worked at once. The straw 

 is cut chiefly into chafF, to serve as provender for the very 

 few cattle employed in Chinese husbandry. The labour of 

 the first crop being finished, the ground is immediately pre- 

 pared for the reception of the fresh seeds. The first opera- 

 tion is to pull up the stubble, collect it in small heaps, burn 

 it, and scatter the ashes upon the field. The former pro- 

 cesses are afterwards renewed. The second crop is generally 

 ripe late in October, or early in November. The grain is 

 treated as, before; but the stubble is no longerburnt.it is 

 turned underneath the plough, and left to putrefy in the 

 earth. This, with the slime brought upon the ground by 

 inundation, are the only manures employed in the foreign 

 cultivation of Rice : lands thus fertilized by the overflowing 

 of the tide in the proximity of the sea, of rivers, or canals, 

 are not appropriated solely to the production of Rice ; 

 they are found equally suitable for raising an excellent crop 

 of Sugar-canes, with the precaution of keeping off the water 

 after the young canes appear above the surface. Satisfied 

 with two crops of Rice or one of Sugar in the year, the 

 Chinese husbandman generally suffers the land to remain at 

 rest till the following spring, when the same process is 

 repeated. And thus, from generation to generation, succes- 

 sive crops are raised from the same soil, without the least 

 idea of any necessity to let the earth lie fallow or idle for a 

 year. Culture in England. Sow the seeds on a hot-bed, 

 and when the plants are come up, transplant them into pots 

 filled with rich light earth, and placed in pans of water, 

 which should be plunged into a hot-bed, renewing the water 

 in proportion to the waste. Keep them in the stove all the 

 summer, and towards the end of August they will produce 

 the grain, which will ripen tolerably well, provided the 

 autumn be favourable. 



Osbeckia ; a genus of the class Octandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 



leafed, bell-shaped, permanent ; border four-parted, deci- 

 duous ; lobes oblong, acute, with a ciliate scalelet interposed 

 between the lobes. Corolla : petals four, roundish, sessile, 

 longer than the calix. Stamina: filamenta eight, filiform, 

 short; antheree oblong, erect, terminated by a filiform beak, 

 the length of the anthem itself. Pistil : germen inferior, 

 ovate, fastened to the calix below, terminated at top by four 

 ciliate scales ; style awl-shaped, the length of the stamina ; 

 stigma simple. Pericarp : capsule, roundish ovate, clothed 

 with the truncated tube of the calix, subovate, four-celled, the 

 cells gaping longitudinally at the top. Seeds: very many, 

 roundish ; receptacle crescent-shaped ; according to Geert- 

 ner. wide, compressed. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: 

 four-cleft, with the lobe separated by a ciliary scale ; Corolla: 

 four-petalled. Stamina: eight. Antheree: beaked. Capsule: 

 inferior, four-celled, surrounded by the truncated tube of the 

 calix. Gartner says, the Calix: five-cleft, without inter- 

 culated scales ; corolla, five-peulled ; stamina, ten ; capsule 

 five-celled. The species are, 



1. Osbeckia Chincnsis. Leaves sessile ; peduncles axil- 

 lary, three-flowered, bracted. Root perennial, woody, some- 

 times consisting of a little knob with branches ; stems qua- 

 drangular, the thickness of a packthread, seldom exceeding 

 half a yard in length, generally branched, and sometimes 

 like a little bush. The branches, which are quadrangular 

 and somewhat hairy, are commonly opposite and single, if 

 not divided ; on the top are commonly two flowers sur- 

 rounded with four leaves, two of which are short, but longer 

 than the flowers. The leaves are opposite, each couple is an 

 inch or more from the other, and the nearer to the flower 

 the farther they are asunder ; seeds small, in a microscope 

 looking like little worms lying in a circular form. The Chi- 

 nese call this plant Komm Heyong-loaa, or Feather of Gold 

 Roses. The whole plant is sold in the apothecaries' shops : 

 they boil it with old Kuli Tea, and drink the decoction in 

 colics; they bathe strains and swellings with the same decoc- 

 tion. Native of the East Indies and China. 



2. Osbeckia Zeylanica. Leaves petioled ; peduncles axil- 

 lary, one-flowered, naked. It greatly resembles the preced- 

 ing. Native of Ceylon. 



Five other species of Osbeckia, with five-cleft flower* and 

 ten stamens, were found by Dr. Afzelius, at Sierra Leone. 



Osier. See Sa/i.r. 



Osmites; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Polyga- 

 mia Frustranea. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: common, 

 imbricate, gibbous, with the inmost leaflets augmented at 

 the tip. Corolla: compound, radiate; corollets hermaph- 

 rodite, several in the disk ; female in the ray; proper of the 

 hermaphrodite, tubular, five-cleft ; of the female, ligulate, 

 entire. Stamina : in the hermaphrodites ; filamenta five, 

 very short ; antheree cylindrical, tubular. Pistil : in the her- 

 maphrodites ; germen oblong; style filiform, the length of 

 the corollet; stigma bifid : in the females, germen smaller; 

 style filiform, the length of the corollet; stigma obsolete. 

 Pericarp : none. Calix : unchanged. Seeds : in the herma- 

 phrodites, solitary, oblong, with scarcely any pappus, or only 

 margined ; the pappus obsolete, and somewhat chaffy : in 

 the females, rudimenta commonly abortive. Receptacle: 

 chaffy. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: imbricate, sca- 

 riose. Corolla: of the ray lignlate. Down: obsolete. Recep- 

 tacle: chaffy. The species are, 



1. Osmites Bellidiastrum. Leaves linear, downy; 

 stems scariose ; branches woody, and thickish ; flowers 

 several in number, at the ends of the stem and branches ; 

 their disk is yellow, and the rays white. Native of the 

 Cape. 



