3870 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 
Obs. There are several varieties of cultivated Rice ; some, called Up- 
land or Mountain Rice, usually awnless,—others, with the pales com- 
monly awned, or mucronate, cultivated in | er can 
i r overflowed with w ‘he aquatic variety is one of the 
,0 ater. 
staple crops of South Carolina. The importance of this plant, to the 
inhabitants of the nt er: regions, generally—but especially in Asia— 
can scarcely be estimated by t the residents of higher latitudes. It is be- 
lieved that its perme enter more largely into the nourishment of the hu- 
man family than 
3. ZIZA’NIA, Gronov. Inp1an Rice. 
[A Greek name of some plant now doubtful.] 
Flowers moneecious ; the staminate and pistillate ones in the same pani- 
cle, both Llowered, Glumes wanting, or in yn — spikelets ru- 
cup-shaped. ea h embranaceous, convex, 
awnless in cod staminate spelt, = Ac with a sara awn in the 
oneseaae Stame neil-form. Stout a 
ikelets readily Y alcining at maturity from the club-sha 
pedicels somcals with wht which they are articulated. 
1. Z. aquar’ica, L. Panicle pyramidal,—the Ao branches spreading, 
ng staminate flowers—the upper branches erect, bearing pistillate 
etd spikelets on clavate pedicels; awns lo: hctee caryopsis slender, 
elongated. 
Aquatic Zan Water Oats. Reed. Indian Rice. 
Root pe! Culm 4-8 or 10 feet high, stout, fistular, terete, glabrous Leaves 1 
or 3 fect. tong, al an inch to an inch op ha <n fis ide deg 3 ar-lanceolate, keeled, poet 
= late on the margin ; sheaths striate, smooth, the pase the nodes, surrounded with 
a ring of hort silky appressed gubeecdiiee + Tigi rather’ fate, elongated, erect, lanceo- 
th 
: lacerate = gh he oagh ig rplish. Panicle 1-2 feet jong, 7 the branches verti- 
cillate Pistillate inch long, needle-like, so mose on the 
branches. — mation, ide nish-purple, the lower one closely oe the 
r one, and terminating na anna straight: hispid awn as hing as the spikelet. 
Muddy a of — —? swampy rivyulets, &c. : throughout the United States 
Fl. Aug. Fr. Sept. - 
Obs. This fine stout Grass is well known, along the muddy shores of 
our tide waters, as the favorite resort . the Reed-bird (Emberiza Oryzi- 
tumn. Extiorr supposed it migh 
vora, L.), in . it might be a valuable 
in ov shy Seaside its he says. ten 
with avidity by stock of ali descriptions. I do not know that it has 
been fo , in that respect, in the northern or 
dle States. The grain is gathered by the North-Western Indians by 
beating it off into their canoes as they sail among the 
4. ALOPECU’RUS, L. Foxran, Grass. 
(Greek, Alopex, a fox, and Oura, a tail ; in allusion to the form of the gut ] 
~ Spikelets 1-flowered. —— strongly compressed and keeled, awnless, 
nearly equal, united at reeset cor ing or shorter than the 
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