CHAPTER IX 



MISCELLANEOUS GRAIN CROPS 



RICE 



313. Origin and History. Rice is one of the oldest of 

 cultivated plants, its cultivation in China dating back at 

 least 4,000 years. It is evidently a native of that country, 

 for it still grows wild in the southern portion. Rice was 

 carried from China into India, then into western Asia, Egypt, 

 and southern Europe. Its introduction into the United 

 States is said to date from 1694, when a small quantity was 

 brought to Charleston, South Carolina. Its cultivation 

 soon became quite general in the low lands along the Caro- 

 lina coast, but it was not grown on a large scale elsewhere in 

 North America until within the last twenty-five or thirty 

 years. 



314. Botanical Characters. Rice does not differ materi- 

 ally in its growth from the other cereals. Botanically, the 

 rice plant is known as Oryza sativa. Its nearest relative 

 in a wild state in the United States is the wild rice of the 

 swamps, Zizania aquatica, which was used as food by the 

 Indians. The culms of cultivated rice usually reach a 

 height of from 4 to 5 feet, several culms being produced from 

 one seed. The flowers are produced in compact panicles; 

 the spikelets, which are one-flowered, are on short pedicels. 

 The outer glumes are short scales; the inner or flowering 

 glume, which incloses the kernel, is sometimes awned. The 

 flowering glume and palea together make up the hull or husk, 

 which is usually yellowish brown in color. The inner por- 



