291 



N. Ord. GRAMINE^. Lindl. Veg. K., p. 106; Le Maout & Dec 

 p. 880. 



Tribe Oryzecp. 



Genus Oryza,* Linn. Steudel, Syn. Gram., p. 2. Species 

 about 12, natives of the hotter parts of both hemispheres. 



291. Oryza saliva, Linn., Sp. Plant., cd. I, p. 333 (1753). 

 Rice. Nivara, Dhan (India). 



Syn.O. montana, Loureiro, &c. O. setigera, Beauv. O. latifolia, 



Desv. 

 Figures. Nees, t. 36 ; Berg, Charact., t. 6, fig. 67 ; Host, Gram- 



Austriac, iv, t. 25 ; Nees, Gen. Fl. Germ. ; Fl. Brasil., fasc. 51, t. 1. 



Description. An annual; stems mucli branched below, cylin- 

 drical, jointed, hollow, smooth, slightly striated, pale green, 

 2 10 feet long, the lower part floating in water or prostrate, 

 with roots at the nodes, the rest erect. Leaves alternate ; sheaths 

 6 12 inches long, not inflated, smooth, the lowest ones without 

 blades ; ligule in the largest leaves an inch long, erect, lanceolate, 

 very acute ; blade linear, 1 2 feet long, the largest nearly 1 inch 

 wide, tapering to a sharp apex, edges minutely serrate, with sharp 

 forward-pointing prickles, surface rough above, nearly smooth 

 beneath, bright pale green, midrib well defined. Spikelets 

 one-flowered, stalked, articulated with the expanded summit of 

 the short pedicel, erect, laxly arranged on one side of the 

 branches of the narrow terminal fastigiate panicle, which is about 

 9 15 inches long, at first erect, afterwards drooping ; rachis 

 flexuose, slightly rough, angular, with small tufts of woolly hair at 

 the base of the branches ; glumes very small, nearly equal, 

 lanceolate- subulate, membranous, smooth, 1 -nerved ; pales equal, 

 about three times the length of the glumes, boat-shaped, some- 

 what laterally compressed, keeled and more or less hairy at the 

 upper part on the back, coriaceous, pale green, persistent, the 

 lower pale (" flowering glume " of some authors), 3-nerved, some- 



* Oryza, 3/j<, the classical name for the grain. 



