46 PROCEEDINGS OF TEE - [Dec, 1860. 



long slender sack thus formed then commences to swell out with "milk, " in- 

 cre-asing gi-adnally towakds t}i£ ''"belly'' oftlie grain, until the chaff is entirely 

 filled with the sack ( the Palea ) enclosing the milk. The process of hardening 

 now commences. This also begins, as the filUng did, at tTte hack of the grain, 

 and proceeds regularly toward the belly, the middle of this portion being the last 

 point, of the grain to become hard. When this process is complete, the whole 

 grain is opaque and of a chalky white. The process of becoming "flinty" or 

 semi-translucent is now commenced, and this also at the same point as the pre- 

 vious change began, and it is completed, should tlie grain reitch perfection, at the 

 central point of the belly, where the filling and the hardening processes had 

 previously been completed. But often, from some unknoMTi cause, this change 

 from opacity to semi-translucency is arrested when short of completion, and 

 then an opaque white spot, which Planters call ' ' Chalk, " remains ; the centre 

 of tills chalk spot, whatever be its size, always being the centre of the belly of 

 the Eice gTain. ' ' Chalk in Kice, " therefore, is an arrest of development and 

 not a disease. 



This arrest must owe its cause to some maltreatment of the Eice after it fills. 

 Now as nothing is done to the plant after this time, except to change the water 

 and to pick out the ' ' Spade-Grass, " it is probable that both these operations 

 are concerned in producing this defect, by destroying (which they must of ne- 

 cessity do more or less, ) these dehcate rootlets specially provided for the per- 

 fecting of this change in the grain, and thus arresting the process by want of 

 nutrition. 



Commenting upon this paper, Vice-President Smith stated that 

 the "long flow" is also called the "joint flow," and its object is to 

 make the Rice plant "joint." 



Vice-President ^mith exhibited specimens of the Nest of the 

 Larva of the Elder Borer, made of leaves cylindiically put together 

 in the pith colon of the Elder, and read a paper " On the Lai'va of 

 the Elder Borer, Desmacerus ^KilUatics'''^ 



Prof. L. R. Gibbes read a "List of Addenda to the Botany -of 

 Edings' Bay, S. C.,| by Benjamin Johnson.* 



Prof. McCrady reported the pubhcation of Article 3, pai't 1, of 

 the Society's Joui-nal. 



* See Note, p. G. 



I See Proceednigs Elliott Society, Vol. I, p, 241. 



