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Western Africa, and America. The principal 

 countries, however, in which this great staple food 

 is grown, are India, China, Japan, Ceylon, Mada- 

 gascar, Eastern Africa, Italy, South Carolina, and 

 Central America. 



The varieties of this plant which have been 

 originated by different climates and different modes 

 of cultivation, are more numerous than those of 

 any other grain crop ; for while in the Bombay 

 Presidency alone we count nearly fifty varieties, 

 Bengal can show several hundreds. The plant is 

 undoubtedly a native of India, for Alexander von 

 Humboldt mentions that a wild variety of it 

 was found growing in some of the valleys of the 

 Himalaya Mountains. 



Rice, in common with most of our field and 

 garden products, owes its superiority of seed and 

 straw over the wild variety to the careful cultiva- 

 tion it has received for centuries, and it has formed 

 the principal food of the natives of India from 

 time immemorial. 



The chief variety of this plant flourishes best in 

 low marshes, or in a soil flooded, during the greater 

 part of its growth, either by heavy rains or the 

 inundations of rivers. Any one visiting Salsette 

 or the Concan during August or September, will 

 see, as far as the range of vision extends, countless 

 fields covered with the luxuriant green of young 

 rice -plants, growing in a soil which, by the 



