RICE. 131 



Gerard informs us, that he attempted to 

 cultivate it in his garden at Holborn in 1596, 

 but that year being unseasonable, it did not 

 even produce blossoms (we presume he 

 means ears). England was then supplied 

 with rice from Spain and the Fortunate 

 Islands. We now principally get it from 

 Carolina and the East Indies : the latter is 

 the smallest grain, but the most nutritious 

 and agreeable ; the former is the handsomest 

 in appearance. 



Of all the plants transplanted from the an- 

 cient Continent into the New World, rice has 

 succeeded the best. The soil in many parts 

 of America was found by the first settlers 

 covered with the leaves of trees and decayed 

 vegetables in a putrid state, from four to six 

 feet in depth. This soil would have been too 

 moist and rich for other grain, until it had 

 been in some degree exhausted by the im- 

 poverishing plant of the tobacco, or the 

 thirsty stalks of the rice ; for it is remark- 

 ably curious that so dry a grain should re- 

 quire so much moisture, and that marshy 

 earth should produce a seed affording an 

 aliment of so exquisite a taste, and which is 

 as wholesome as it is dry. In the Island of 

 Ceylon, and in most parts of Asia where 



K 2 



