WILD RICE. 107 



focUer, embracing the advantages of hay and oat?, 

 Mr. Lambert's figure of the plant in the Linnnsn 

 Transactions is accurate, and exactly resembles 

 the one growing in the Seneca river. Its produc- 

 tiveness may be inferred from the food it furnislies 

 to thousands of human beings, and to myriads of 

 aquatic animals. From the success of the expe- 

 riment of Sir Joseph Banks, it is highly probable 

 that it will grow in any part of this country and 

 Great Britain ; and if so, may it not be consider- 

 ed as a good substitute for the oryza sativa or 

 common rice. It is well known that the latter 

 furnishes more subsistence to the human race than 

 any other plant. Pursh mentions a grass v^hich 

 he calls the or^'zopsis asperifolia, which he obser- 

 ved on the broad mountains of this country, and 

 v/hich, he s^iys, contains large seeds, that produce 

 the finest ilonr. Perhaps this species of oryzop- 

 sis, although gencrically dilftTent, bears the same 

 relation to z. aquatica, in its importance and 

 place of growth, as the mountain rice of India 

 does to the comnmn rice of that region. At all 

 events, the more 1 see of this country, the more I 

 am convinced of its vast ability to support tfie 

 human species, and of the propriety of calliiig its. 

 latent powers into operation. 



