met with in the wild state wherever marshy lands occur, in 

 Madras, Orissa, throughout Bengal, Arracan and Cochin- 

 china. The plant is generally an annual. The inflorescence 

 is a panicle of spikes on short peduncles which have hairy 

 scale, frequently a distinct tuft of hairs as in O. officinalis 

 at the point of origin of the spikes. The outer glumes are 

 large, very often tri-dentate, midrib prominent, inner glumes 

 variously shaped, but in the wild states considerably elon- 

 gated, being as a rule, -325 inches in length, and in the 

 majority of cases the larger one is 1 produced into a long 

 awn which is distinctly articulated and possessed at its 

 base of two glandular processes which correspond to the 

 extremities of the lateral nerves : surface more or less hairy 

 especially'on the keel and nerves. Whilst the vast majority 

 of forms of O. Sativa possess only one grain, certain forms 

 have 2 or even 3 grains. The Uri or Jhard rice of Bengal 

 is only one form of wild O. Sativa, which may be the origin 

 of the various aus, aman and boro paddies. The wild rice is 

 hardier than cultivated rices and as it is self-sown and is 

 easily carried from field to field, it has been sometimes known 

 to exterminate the cultivated rice and take its place. 

 Fishermen collect the easily detached grain by binding the 

 ears into tufts before they are ripe. When ripe they go in their 

 palm canoes collecting the ears or simply shaking the grain 

 into their primitive barges. Roxburgh distinguishes between 

 early and late rices. He distinguishes eight forms of late 

 rice, all awnless affording white grains. Of his early rices 

 four are awned and yield red or coloured grains, one is awned 

 but yielding a white grain, while three are awnless yielding 

 white grains. Of the early rices six have coloured husks, 

 while two have white or pale husks; of the late rices four 

 have coloured and four white husks. The progress of culti- 

 vation is from awned to awnless and from? coloured to colour- 

 less. Against these suppositions should be mentioned the 

 fact that the O. Bengalensis or Uri-dhdn has white husk and 



