J04 RICE. 
DIGYNIA. 
116. RICE (Oryza sativa, Fig. 39) is a well-known kind of 
grain, which is much cultivated in the East Indies, America, 
and some parts of Spain ; and which, previously to its being 
sold for use, is freed from a brownish husk that covers it. 
The rice plant has an erect, simple, round, and jointed stem. 
Its leaves are narrozc and pointed ; and its flowers appear in, 
a kind of bunch, at the extremity, somewhat resembling, but 
more compact than, an ear of oats. 
We are, at present, chiefly supplied with rice from 
America ; and it is said that the Americans were in- 
debted for this grain to a small bag of it which was 
formerly given as a present from a Mr. Dubois, trea- 
surer of the East India Company, to a Carolina mer- 
chant. 
A wet and morassy soil, appears in general neces- 
sary to the cultivation of rice. The parts of the 
farms or plantations in which it is grown are usually 
so situated as to admit of being flooded; and, in 
many places, reservoirs of water are formed for this 
purpose. These reservoirs have sluices, by which the 
rice fields may be inundated at pleasure. In reaping 
the crop, the labourers generally work knee deep in 
water and mud. As the rice is cut, the sheaves are 
put on drays, and carried out to be spread on dry 
ground. The rice thus produced has the name of 
marsh rice, and is that which is chiefly imported into 
Europe. 
In some of the mountainous parts of the East Indies 
rice is cultivated on the sides of hills, where it can only 
be watered by rain. It is sown, however, at the begin- 
ning of the rainy, and reaped in the beginning of the 
dry season ; so that, in fact, it has nearly all the ad- 
vantages of being watered, which the marsh rice pos- 
sesses. The general appellation of rice, in the East 
Indies, is paddy; but the kind just mentioned is de- 
nominated paddy gunung, or mountain rice, and is little 
