STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 399 



Christ. Even in the time of Strabo, rice was cultivated in Babylon, Khuzistan and 

 Syria. The Arabians brought it to Sicily.^ It was found by Alexander's expedition under 

 cultivation in Hindustan but the account of Theophrastus seems to imply that the living 

 plant continued unknown in the Mediterranean countries. Rice was known, however, 

 to Celsus, Pliny, Dioscorides and Galen. According to some, rice was known in Lombardy 

 in the tenth century but Targioni-Tozzetti ^ says that in the year 1400 it was still known 

 in Italy only as an article of import from the East. Its cultivation was introduced into 

 Piedmont and Lombardy in the end of the fifteenth, or commencement of the sixteenth, 

 century, either directly from India by the Portuguese or through Spain and Naples by 

 the Spaniards. It was not cultivated in fields in Lombardy until 1522. 



Rice was introduced into Virginia by Sir William Berkeley in 1647, who caused half 

 a bushel of seed to be sown, and the yield was fifteen bushels of excellent rice.^ This grain 

 is stated to have been first brought into Charleston, South Carolina, by a Dutch brig 

 from Madagascar in 1694, the captain of which left about a peck of paddy with 

 Governor Smith, who distributed it among his friends for cultivation.^ Another account 

 is that Ashby sent a bag of seed rice, 100 pounds, from which in 1698 sixty tons were 

 shipped to England.^ The culture of rice was introduced into Louisiana by the Company 

 of the West in 17 18.* Upland, or mountain rice, was introduced into Charleston, South 

 Carolina, from Canton, in 1772.' Father Baegert,* 1751-68, speaks of rice as flourishing 

 in California. 



The varieties of rice are almost endless. At the Madras exhibition of 1857, one 

 exhibitor sent 190 varieties from Tanjore; another sent 65 from Travancore; 50 were 

 received from Chingleput; 50 from Paghot; and from these 107 varieties of paddy were 

 selected as distinct.' In Moon's Catalogue of Ceylon Plants}" no less than 161 varieties 

 are envunerated as growing in Ceylon, and Carey " describes 40 varieties in Coromandel, 

 all well known to native farming. The most general divisions are into upland rice, valley 

 rice, siumner rice and spring rice. The finest rice in the world is that raised in North 

 and South Carolina. Rice in the husk is called paddy. 



Oryzopsis asperifolia Michx. Gramineae. mountain rice. 



North America. The grain is large and affords a fine and abundant farina, deserving 

 the attention of agriculturists.'* 



' Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Of. Rpt. 304. 1859. 



' Targioni Tozzetti .lourn. Hort. Soc. Land. 137. 1854. 



* Per}. Desc. Va. i^. 1649. Force Coll. Tracts 2: 1838. 

 U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 165. 1853. 



Ibid. 



Ibid. 

 ' Ibid. 



' Smithsonian Inst. Rpt. 356. 1864. 



' Bot. Soc. Edinb. 7:276. 1863 

 "Ainslie, W. Mat. Ind. 1:341. 1826. 

 " Roxburgh, W. Hort. Beng. 25. 1814. 

 "Nuttall, T. Gen. No. Amer. Pis. 1:40. 1818. 



