310 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Ornithopus sativus. Brotero. 



South-Europe and North-Africa. " The Seratella or Serradella." 

 An annual herb, larger than the ordinary Bird's-foot clover, 0. 

 perpusillus, L. It is valuable as a fodder-plant on sterile particu- 

 larly moist and sandy soil. It requires no lime, but improves in 

 growth on such, especially gypsum-land. Particularly rich in 

 digestible protein. Dr. Goessmann found in Pennsylvania the 

 total of two cuts to be in a season 11 J tons green fodder, equal to 

 nearly 3 tons dry on an acre. A good honey-plant. It matures 

 seeds near Christiania [Schuebeler]. Has done particularly well in 

 Hawaia. 



Oryza latifolia, Desvaux. 



Wild in Central America, but perhaps of Asiatic origin. This 

 species is said to be perennial and to attain a height of 18 feet. It 

 deserves trial culture, and may prove a good fodder-grass on wet 

 land in warm localities. 0. perennis (Moench) seems closely allied. 

 Bentham and J. Hooker are not inclined to admit more than one 

 species of Oryza. The present one is however maintained by 

 Grisebach. 



Oryza sativa, Linne.* 



The Bice-Plant. South-Asia and North-Australia. Annual like 

 most cereals. Many rivulets in ranges afford ample opportunities 

 for irrigating rice-fields ; but these can be formed with full advan- 

 tage only in the warmer parts of extra-tropic countries, where rice 

 will ripen as well as in Italy, China or the Southern States of the 

 American Union. In Persia it grows up to 8,000 feet. Among 

 the numerous varieties of Indian rice may be noted as prominent 

 sorts : The Early Bice (O. preecox, Loureiro), which ripens in four 

 months and is not injured by saline inundations ; the hardier 

 Mountain-Bice (0. montana, Loureiro), which can be raised on 

 comparatively dry ground, and which actually perishes under 

 lengthened inundation, but which is less productive ; the Glutinous 

 Bice (0 glutinosa, Loureiro) which succeeds as well in wet as in 

 almost dry places, and produces black or reddish grains. Mr. H. 

 A. Wickham recommends the Brazilian and the Carolina varieties 

 for Australia, as most prolific, and as least troublesome in their 

 culture. In the rich plains of Lombardy, irrigated from the Alps, 

 the average crop is estimated at forty -eight bushels for the acre 

 annually. According to General C apron the average yield in 

 Japan is fifty bushels per acre, while on the Manning Biver, in 

 N.S.W., 60 bushels were obtained. The spirit, distilled from rice 

 and its molasses, is known as arrack. Bice-beer, known as "Sake," 

 is extensively brewed in Japan, and is the principal fermented 

 beverage used by the inhabitants ; thus, according to the "Journal 



. of the Society of Arts," about 150 millon gallons are consumed 

 annually. Bice-starch is now consumed in enormous quantities r 



