802 
O R Y Z A. 
thus fertilized by the overflowing of the tide in the proxi¬ 
mity of the fea,'or of rivers or canals, are not appropri¬ 
ated foleiy to the'produftion of rice. They are found 
equally fuitable for railing an excellent crop of fugar- 
canes, with the precaution only of keeping off the water 
after the young canes appear above the furface. Satisfied 
with two crops of rice, or one of fugar, in the year, the 
Cbinefe hufbandman generally fuffers the land to remain 
at reft till the following fpring, wh.en the fame procefs is 
repeated. And thus, from generation to generation, fuc- 
ceffive'crops are raifed from the fame foil, without the leaft 
idea of any necefllty to let the earth lie fallow or idle for 
a year. See Staunton’s- Emb. to China, vol. ii. p. 39Z. 
and Thunberg’s Travels, vol. iii. and iv. 
In England .—Rice is probably a plant that cannot be 
cultivated in this climate, as the experiments faid to be 
made by fir Jofeph Banks, and detailed by a writer in the 
Agricultural Magazine, vol. x. feem to fhow. It is there 
liated, that the dry or mountain rice, which he received 
from the Board of Agriculture for trial, had been pro¬ 
cured at aconfiderable expenfe by fir John Murray, from 
the neighbourhood of Serinagur, a city in India, fituated 
at the foot of Mount Imaus, where fnow lies till late in 
the fpring, and where the climate has been fuppofed to 
refemble that of England fufficiently to make it probable 
that the vegetable produflions of the one would equally 
fucceed in the other country ; he therefore considers it as 
a duty owing to the patriotic exertions of fir John, to give 
the board fome account of the refuit of the trial of it, 
made at Spring-Grove, near Hounflow, in Middlesex. 
He adds, that it was not till near the end of May, when 
the famples, being of fix forts, were delivered out by the 
board ; and they were fowri immediately, on the zift day 
of that month, on fix finall beds in a garden, under the 
fhelter of. a paled fence, in a fouth expofure. The grain 
was (own very thin, in order that the progrefs of its ve¬ 
getation might be better noted : in a very few days it ap¬ 
peared above ground. The feafon being warm, with a 
moderate fupply of rain, it was feldom necefl'ary to water 
it; however, when it appeared to flag, which generally 
happened after three or four dry days had taken place, it 
was well fprinkled with a watering-pot. He fays that, in 
lefs than a month it had grown feveral inches high, and 
each fort had acquired an appearance very different from 
the reft: fome were pale-green, and had broader blades ; 
fome were deeper coloured, and narrower in the blade.; 
and one fort had a brown hue on the whole plant; and the 
bafes of the leaves in this kind were nearly black. 
He further ftates, that, during the month of Auguft, all 
the kinds tiilowed much more than he had obferved any 
other corn to do; fo much fo, that, although they had 
been fovvn very thin, they became a denfe compact bed of 
plants, the blades in fome of the kinds (landing as clofe, 
or cloler, to each other, than the thickeft-fown barley ever 
does. At the clofe of the month the blades were from a 
foot to eighteen inches high ; the plants continued to til- 
low, each root having by this time produced from ten to 
twenty off-fets, but no fymptom of a rifing-ftem was at 
all obfervable. In the middle of September they had ftill 
continued to tillow, and the blades to ftrengthen, fo that 
fome of them were at leaft two feet long. 
As the frofts of the autumn were now nearly approach¬ 
ing, it became an objedt of fome importance to examine 
the ftate in which the plants really were, in order to afeer- 
tain the probability of their having produced ears, or 
poffibility of their having ripened corn, if they had been 
fown a month or two earlier. The mod careful infpedtion 
was therefore made by difie&ion, but no traces could be 
found of the rudiment of a joint beginning to form it- 
felf on the crown of the root, or of the embryo of the 
glumes of the ear, which in all kinds of corn are firft 
difcernible in that part. He fays that, about this pe¬ 
riod he was taken ill, and obliged to defilt from obferving 
their future progrefs; but a froft foon after followed, 
which cut the blade down to the earth, and at once de- 
ftroyed all hopes of thefe kinds of rice producing grain in 
our climate; the quantity of the blade was however fo 
uncommonly great, that it is not impoffible, he thinks it 
might be advantageous, to fow it as food forcattle ; for a 
very large proportion of ftock might certainly be main¬ 
tained upon an acre of it. He concludes by obferving, 
that, before the froft lets in, he had ordered a tuft of each 
kind of the rice to be tranfplanted into a pot, and placed 
in a hot-houfe, in order, if poffible, to afeertain the natu¬ 
ral period of this grain; whether, like winter-corn, it re¬ 
quires eight or nine months to come to perfection, or, like 
our lent-corn, arrives at the fame period in five or fix ; but 
all of thefe died, notwithstanding great attention was paid 
to them. Some feed, however, which he had given to 
Mr. Lambert, fucceeded better: it was fown in the hot- 
houfe in the month of June, where it throve well, but did 
not produce ears till near Cbriftmas, a period of feven 
months, from whence, it is probable, the grain would 
have ripened in lefs than two months from the time the 
ear appeared. It is eafy to deduce, that, in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Serinagur, thefe kinds of rice are either fown 
as winter-corn, or the climate there is far better fuited to 
promote the quick progrefs of vegetation than ours is. 
It was, when it produced ears, about three feet and a half 
high ; and. fome of the ftems had five joints, including the 
radical one: had it .been in a more fuitable climate, it 
would certainly have grown taller; for the flowers dropped 
off without producing feed. 
This plant is faid to have been more recently culti¬ 
vated with fuccefs near Dumfries, by Mr. Charters, not- 
withftanding the want of fuccefs in the above trial, as 
well as by others in Cambridgeftiire : and it is not im¬ 
probable, but that, by degrees, it may be fo naturalized to 
tire climate, as has been the cafe-with many other plants, 
as to be cultivated without much trouble or difficulty, and 
thus contribute to the advantage of the country as an ar¬ 
ticle of the grain kind. 
Rice forms an excellent kind of bread when incorpo¬ 
rated, with flour, as well as a good food for the feeding of 
different forts of animals of the poultry and other kinds. 
It is much ufed as food in the Roman-catholic countries in 
time of Lent. The ordinary preparation is, by firft fteep- 
ing it in water, then boiling it in milk. Some make it into 
a fort of farina, or flour, by pounding it in a mortar, after 
having firft put it in hot water, and again vvaflied it out 
in cold. 
Among the common kinds of grain, rice is accounted 
the mildeft and moft nutritious, and is fuppofed to be 
particularly ferviceable in dyfenteries and diarrhoeas. It 
is lefs vifeousthan wheat, or of lefs tenacity, when boiled 
with water. The northern nations eat their fowls and 
other meats with rice and fafrron. The Chinefe make a 
wine of rice, which is of an amber colour, and taftes like 
Spa nidi wine, and ferves them for their common drink. 
In fome parts of Europe they alfo draw a very ftrong 
brandy, or fpirit, from rice. 
Braconnot has lately analyfed this grain: according to 
his experiments, 100 parts confift of 
Carolina Rice. Piedmont Rice. 
Water .... 
5*00 
7 - oo 
Starch - - - 
85-07 
8380 
Parenchyma - - 
4 ‘"o 
4-‘8o 
Vegeto-animal matter 
3*60 
3°6o 
Uncryftaliizable fugar 
0*29 
o'os 
Gummy matter,approaching ftarch 
071 
O’lO 
Oil - 
0’20 
°’25 
Phofpliate of lime 
o *33 
o’4o 
100 100 
OR'ZERO, a town of Iftrin, in the gulf of Venice, near 
the fea: five miles north of Rovigno. Lat. 45. 1 3. N. 
Ion. 13. 53. E. 
OS, or Avesh', a town of Turkeftan, near the Sirr: 
eighty miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Andegan. 
OS, 
