Order I. 
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
289 
4936 The only species, Leaves lanceolate ovate rough 
*937 The only species, Leaves stalked hastate toothed 
4938 Flowers solitary, Petals repand obtuse, Leaves linear ciliated at base 
4939 Flowers fascicled. Petals acute. Leaves linear ciliated at base 
4940 Flowers fascicled. Petals repand obtuse. Leaves linear oblong hairy at base 
4941 Flowers solitary. Petals subrepand. Leaves roundish ovate powdery beneath 
4912 Flowers hexandrous axillary solitary. Flowers stalked rounded ovate 
niGYNIA. 
4943 The only species 
4944 Prickly 
4i)45 Unarmed, Leaves wavy 
and Miscellaneous Particulars. 
which are liable to be annually inundated, and enriched by the deposition of mud. According to Sir George 
Staunton's account, the Chinese obtain two crops of rice in a year from the same ground, and cultivate it in 
this way from generation to generation on the same soil, and without any other manure than the mud de- 
posited by the water of the river used in overflowing it. After the waters of the inundation have withdrawn, 
a few days are allowed for the mud to get partially dry ; then a small spot is enclosed by a bank of clay slightly 
ploughed and harrowed, and the grain, previously steeped in dung, diluted with animal water, is then sown 
very thickly on it A thin sheet of water is immediately brought over it, either by a led stream, or the chain- 
pump. Thus a seed-bed or nursery is prepared, and, in the meantime, the remainder of the tract is preparing 
tor being planted. When the plants are six or seven inches high, they are transplanted in furrows made by 
the plough, so as to stand about a foot apart every way ; water is then brought over them, and kept on till the 
crop begins to ripen, when it is withheld ; so that when harvest arrives the Meld is quite dry. It is reaped with 
a sickle, threshed with a flail or the treading of cattle, and the husk taken off by beating it in a stone mortar, 
or passing it between two flat stones, as in a common meal mill. The first crop being cut in May, a second is 
immediately prepared for by burning the stubble, and this second crop ripens in October or November. After 
removal, the stubble is ploughed in, which is the only vegetable manure such lands can be said to receive from 
man. In Japan, Ceylon, and Java, according to Thunberg, Davis, and Raffles, aquatic rice is cultivated 
nearly in the same manner. Mountain-rice is grown much in the same way as our barley. 
In Lombardy and Savoy rice is sown on rich lands, the sower often wading to the knees in water : one crop 
a year only is obtained ; but four crops are often taken in succession. In America a similar practice obtains. 
In Westphalia, and some other parts of the south of Germany, rice has long been cultivated ; there it is 
sown on lands that admit of irrigation ; but the water is not admitted till the seed has germinated, and it is 
withdrawn, as in Italy, when the crop comes into flower. From long culture in a comparatively cold country, 
the German rice has acquired a remarkable degree of hardiness and adaptation to the climate ; a circumstance 
which has frequently been alluded to as an encouragement to the acclimating of exotics. It is found. 
Dr. Walker remarks {Essays on Nat. Hist.), that rice seeds direct from India will not ripen in Germany at all, 
and even that Italian or Spanish seeds are much less early and hardy than those ripened on the spot. 
In Hungary rice has not been long cultivated : the mountain sort has chiefly been tried, and that in the 
manner of our barley or summer-wheat. 
In England a crop of rice has been obtained near Windsor, on the banks of the Thames. 
In the stove, or in a hot-bed, rice may be grown in pots of rich soil placed in pans of water, and in August 
they may be set in the greenhouse, or under any glass roof open at the sides, and they will produce perfect 
grains. 
By far the best imported rice is that from Carolina : it is larger and better tasted than that of India, which 
IS small, meagre, and the grains frequently broken. As an article of diet, rice has been extolled as superior 
almost to any other vegetable : but, whatever it may be in warmer climates, where it is a common, and to 
many persons almost their only food, it does not appear so well calculated for European constitutions as the 
potatoe; for we find that the poor constantly reject the use of rice when potatoes are to be had; and whilst 
these can be obtained, we may venture to predict, that rice will always be considered in this country, rather as 
a dainty, to be eaten with sweet condiments, spices, fruit, &c. than as ordinary food. ( Willich's Family 
Cyclopadia.) 
838. Atraphaxis. A name given by the Greeks to the Atriplex of the Latins ; derived from a, privative, and 
r'otipiiv, to nourish ; that is to say, a plant yielding no nourishment. Cuttings root freely in sand under a 
glass ; but the plants are of neither beauty nor curiosity. 
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