862 



An annual 1-1 1 ft. high, stems sometimes prostrate, rooting 

 at the nodes; found about towns and villages, Nupe (Barter, 

 Herb. Kew), growth very rapid and thrives well on poor soils 

 (Chevalier, l.c,) Dense crops of it grow in waste ground and 

 upon the flat roofa of the Arabs houses in Unyanyembe (Grant, 

 l.c.) ; forming very elegant meadows, everywhere in damp places 



Loanda (Hiern, Lc*)- 



Dactyloctenium glaucophyllum , Court. ** Jaddoho " or " Dojo'' 

 of SomaHland, also in Nubia and Panjab, is said to be eaten 

 greedily by cattle and sheep; but it is dangerous for horses, 

 causing intense irritation of the bladder and kidneys if eaten 

 in large quantities (Appleton Herb. Kew; and Bull. 1907, 

 p. 222). 



Oryza, Linn. 

 Oryza sativa, Linn. ; Fl. Trop. Afr, ined. 



7K.~Bentley & Trimen, Med. PI. t. 291; Duthie, Field 

 Crops, t, 4; Church, Food Grains, India, pp. 67, 71; Koehler, 

 Med. Pflan, iii.; Agric, Journ. India, 1919, tt. 12, 13: Hitchcock, 

 -Grasses, U.S. Dept. Agric. Bull No. 772, 1920, p. 205, f. 122; 

 and numerous other works, 



Vemac, names. — Shinkafa (Hausa, Dalziel, Dudgeon). — Rice. 



Cultivated throughout the Tropics and in many Sub-Tropical 



coun tries. 



The commerical sources of the grain are chiefly British India, 

 Siam, Java, Straits Settlements, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Japan, 

 French Indo-China, United States, etc ; important trade descrip- 

 tions being " Patna," " Rangoon,'' '' Siam Garden," *' Java," 

 " Carolina," *' Japan " and '* Japanese Unpolished." 



The grain is a well-known food product, probably the greatest 

 in the world. A great part of the rice sold for food is *' white " 

 or '* polished," that is with the thin outer covering^the more 

 nutritious part of the grain — removed; and where the use of 

 this is supplemented by a variety of other foods the constituents 

 lost are not likely to be missed ; but in countries where rice is 

 the staple food it is of importance that the whole grain be eaten ; 

 it has been found that those who consume rice parboiled before 

 husking or when prepared by primitive methods of pounding 

 and winnowing are free from the disease '' beri-beri." In Lower 

 Bengal the preliminary treatment of the grain for food consists 

 of soaldng the paddy (unhusked rice) in cold water for 24-36 

 hours. ** It is then removed in a large earthen pot ' handy ' 

 and boiled with a little water — about half a seer (2 lb.) in a 

 * handy ' containing about 10 seers of paddy — until some of 

 the grains burst, the grains are then dried in the sun over a mat 

 until the grains inside the husks become hard when the husks are 

 removed by a wooden machine called a ' dheky ' " (Kew Bull. 

 1909, p. 229). 



\8ee Essay on Beri-Beri in Japan [transl. F. v. Mueller] by 

 A, Wernick (Australian Medical Journ. 1882) ; " The Etiology of 



