[ 209 1 



ant crops, while 25 to 30 per cent, by all ithe less important 

 crops named put together. 



254. In a handbook of Indian agriculture, special 

 importance must be attached to those crops which occupy the 

 largest area, and we will therefore devote the following 

 pages of this Part of the book mainly to these crops. 



CHAPTER XXIL 



RICK ( ORYZA SATIVA ). 



'1PHE wild rice. Rice is indigenous to the East Indies 

 and Australia, but cultivated from very ancient times 

 throughout the warmer regions of the Old and the New 

 World. Some of the wild varieties are awned and others 

 awnless. But other peculiarities, such as ability to stand 

 drought or inundation, are of more economic import- 

 ance and should be studied by collectors of wild and 

 cultivated species of rice. Oryza granulata is found on 

 dry soils at altitudes up to 3000 feet, in Sikkim, Assam, 

 Bur'mah, Paresnath and Rajmehal hills, and Malabar. It 

 is a perennial species with an almost woody root-stock. The 

 flavour of the grain is so good that it is collected and eaten 

 by children. The granular structure of the inner glume is 

 its characteristic peculiarity. No cultivated rice seems to 

 have been derived from this wild species as this peculiarity 

 is not possessed by any. Or%za officinalis, another perennial 

 species, with a sub-woody root stock with tall and sparse 

 branches, multi-nerved leaves and profuse branched panicles 

 has its characters intermediate between O. granulata and 

 oryza sativa. This wild rice occurs in Sikkim, Khasia Hills, 

 and Burmah. Hairy glumes which are found in some culti- 

 vated rices are present in this wild species. The umbellate, 

 naked peduncles are also sometimes met with in cultivated 

 hill rice which is distinctly O. Sativa. The O. Sativa is 



AA 



