RICE 



185 



Like other cereals, it stools or tillers abundantly under 

 favorable conditions. The seeds are borne in a loose head 

 or panicle, somewhat more compressed than that of oats. 

 The spikelets are one-flowered and attached to the branches 

 of the panicles with a short pedicel. 

 The outer glumes are short scales 

 or bristles, and the flowering glume 

 and palea, varying in color from light 

 to dark yellow or brown, tightly 

 envelop the kernel which remains 

 attached when the grain is thrashed. 

 The flowering glume sometimes 

 bears an awn. When the glumes 

 are removed, the kernel is slightly 

 furrowed, is hard and vitreous, and 

 white in color. There are two gen- 

 eral types of rice ; namely, the low- 

 land and the upland. The lowland 

 rice is grown in low, level fields 

 which can be irrigated from rivers 

 or lakes. The upland rice is grown 

 without irrigation as corn or cotton 

 is grown. Almost all of the rice 

 grown in this country is of the low- 

 land type. 



173. Uses. — It is a difficult task 

 to tell the story of the role that 

 rice has played in the dietary of 

 the race. For centuries it has been the " staff of life " to the 

 people of southern Asia and to-day is one of the most im- 

 portant starchy foods of all civilized nations. The United 

 States, while producing a larger amount, finds it necessary 

 to import about 200 million pounds yearly to meet the de- 



Fig. 



66. — A panicle 

 rice. 



of 



