116 



RICE. MAIZE. SUGAR-CANE. 



54. Rice Ory'za* also has flowers arranged in a panicle, but 

 the spikelets are uniflorous ; it is an annual plant, and delights 

 most in low humid situations, and even in inundated places ; its 

 culm rises three or four feet high, and its leaves are very long. 

 It is originally from India : it is cultivated in Italy, but Asia, 

 Africa and America furnish most ; Carolina rice is considered 

 amongst the very best; it constitutes the principal article of diet 

 of all the nations of the East. 



55. Maize, or Indian Com Zea (from the Greek, zeb, I 

 live) is also an herbaceous annual grass ; its fibrous roots give 

 rise to one or more stems five or six feet high, the summit of which 

 bears a panicle nearly a foot long, formed of male flowers in great 

 numbers on several spikes ; the female flowers are very nume- 

 rous, sessile, attached upon a common axis in the axil of the su- 

 perior leaves. The grains are round- 

 ed, of the size of a common pea, 

 ordinarily of a yellow colour, com- 

 pressed one against the other, and ar- 

 ranged longitudinally in six or eight 

 rows. This plant is originally from 

 America ; but was long ago intro- 

 duced into Europe, and is cultivated 

 in all the south of France, Spain and 

 Italy, and is used as food both for 

 men and many domestic animals. 



56. Sugar-cane Saccharum^ 

 (Jig. 139)^also belongs to the fami- 

 ly of Grami'nese; its white, silky 

 flowers, all of which are hermaphro- 

 dite, are arranged in fasciculated 

 spikes, with two flowers at each arti- 

 culation ; its stem, which is from 

 eight to twelve feet high, is full of 

 sweet juice, which, being compressed 

 and evaporated by boiling, yields su- 

 gar. It grows in the East and West 

 Indies, United States, South America, 

 Fig. 139. SUGAR-CANE. and South Sea Islands. 



* ORY'ZA. From the Arabic word eruz, the Greeks coined their word 

 orwza, and the various modern nations of Europe, their rice, riz, rets, 

 arrdz, &c. 



t SACCHARUM. From its Arabic name soukar, from which the Greeks 



54. What are the general characters of the rice plant ? 



55. What are the characters of Indian corn ? 



56. What are the characters of sugar-cane ? How is sugar made ? How 

 is sugar-candy prepared ? What is rock-candy ? What is barley .sugar ? 

 What is rum ? 



