ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF CULTIVATED RICE. 29 
The abdominal white is almost always found in large grains belong- 
ing to long-grained and short-grained varieties. IJ. Lyacaxi detected 
that the white abdomened rice-grain has a lower specific gravity, is more 
easily broken by pressure and the chalky coloured portion absorbs liquids 
more rapidly than the normal portion. Moreover he observed that the 
abdominal white exists farthest from the vascular bundle of the grain, 
that it appears at the germination of the grain, which has been entirely 
free from it before the germination, that rice not fully matured have 
mostly abdominal white and sometimes that portion where it exists 3s 
slightly depressed. He explained, thus, that the abdominal white is 
nothing but a portion of rice-grain, where spaces between starch-grains 
are not filled up with albuminous substances’ U. Suzuxr and RK. Aso 
detected by chemical analysis that the chalky portion of the rice-grain has 
a lower percentage of albuminoides than the normal portion.” S. Tanaka 
expressed nearly the same opinion as I. Inacaxı and he added that the 
abdominal white results from insufficient supply of nutritive matters in 
the ripening time, or from abnormal arrangements or improper propor- 
tion of the accumulated substances in the grain.? 
In examining Burman rice the writer observes that the abdominal 
white generally oceurs only slightly or is entirely absent in slender 
grains, while it is often conspicuous in short ones, so that its magnitude 
seems to some extent to be proportionate to the breadth of the grain. 
We may safely say that the abdominal white shows fluctuation ac- 
cording to climate, weather and methods of cultivation, but its heredity 
is not determined yet. It is, however, useful to mention the degree of 
its existence in the grain, because it has an influence upon the quality 
of the grain. 
A similar difference of texture in the grain certainly exists in the 
glutinous rice too, but as the endosperm of the glutinous rice 1s generally 
1. JI. INAGAKI: Researches on the rice-plant. 
2. Journal of the Scientific Agricultural Society, 1901, No. 47, p. 14. 
3. Journal of the Scientific Agricultural Society, No. 42. 
