that, among the varieties of the red currant, are 
to be reckoned the white-berried, the striped- 
berried, and the flesh - coloured - berried,—that 
among those of the black currant are to be reck- 
ened the green-berried and the yellow-berried,— 
and that the berries of the black currant possess 
tonic and stimulant properties, while the leaves 
of it are glandular and secrete a rich fragrant 
aroma, remotely similar to that of tea but very 
much stronger.—The alpine currant, /?zdes alpt- 
num, grows wild in the woods of Britain, and 
has green flowers and an ordinary height of 
about 3 feet, bu’ comprises both a smaller va- 
riety and a larger one,—the latter a garden plant 
with variegated leaves.—The rock currant, Azbes 
petrewm, grows wild on the mountains of some 
parts of England, and has reddish flowers, and 
an ordinary height of about 4 feet.—The spiked- 
flowered currant, fibes spicatum, inhabits the 
moist woods of some parts of England, and is 
about as tall as the preceding, and has green 
flowers. 
The flowering currant, or bloody - coloured 
flowered currant, Ribes sanguinewm, was intro- 
duced to Britain from North America only 22 
years ago, and is already an universal beauty of 
shrubberies, and even a very common one of 
small cottage plots. 
height of about 6 feet, and blooms in April and 
May, and has naturally deep red or blood-col- 
oured flowers; and it comprises many seedling 
varieties, differing from one another in the col- 
our of their flowers, from the brightest pink to 
the bloodiest crimson, and from either of these, 
through all the lighter shades, up to almost pure 
white. Four old and principal varieties are R&. 
s. atro-rubens, with dark red flowers,—R. s. mal- 
vaceum, with dark pink flowers,—Jf. s. glutino- 
sum, with pale pink flowers,—and J#. s. alba, with 
white flowers. But a double-flowered variety, 
2. s. flore-pleno, which was raised a few years 
ago in the Harl of Selkirk’s garden at Kirkcud- 
bright, greatly excels all the old varieties,—com- 
ing three weeks later into bloom, so as to escape 
the spring frosts, continuing longer in bloom, 
and, not only having double flowers, but produc- 
ing them in gorgeous pendulous racemes of from 
3 to 6 inches in length. The flowering currant, 
in all its varieties, is one of the most rapid-grow- 
ing and unfastidious of garden shrubs, thriving 
well in any common soil, and readily propagable 
from either layers or cuttings. 
_RIBGRASS. See Pranrarn. 
RICE,—hbotanically Oryza, A small genus of 
exotic, annual, cereal grasses, with a panicled 
inflorescence similar to that of the millets, the 
bents, and the canary-grasses. It has six sta- 
mens, two styles, two one-flowered glumes, and 
two persistent and equal pales. 
Rice is indigenous in many parts of both Asia 
and Africa; and it is cultivated in all the warmer 
regions of the Old World, in many of the south- 
ern parts of Europe, and in not a few places of 
It commonly attains a 
North America, but especially Carolina. It was 
cultivated in the Hast at periods beyond all re- 
cord; it was long ago introduced to the coun- 
tries immediately north of the Mediterranean,— 
Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Spain; it was more 
recently introduced to Hungary and Central 
Hurope ; and it first found its way into the Wes- 
tern hemisphere about the beginning of the last 
century. Attempts have been made since 1821 
to cultivate it in England, Holland, France, 
Switzerland, Westphalia, and Central Russia,— 
and these have been particularly directed to the 
mountain species of it, which is hardier and has 
much shorter and more rounded grains than the 
other kinds, and thrives on dry ground while 
they thrive only on marshy or irrigated lands; 
but, for all practical purposes, these attempts 
have entirely failed in England, and have no- 
where sufficiently succeeded on the Continent 
to warrant the hope of ever raising a produce 
which shall compete in the market with rice 
imported from Carolina or Bengal. Yet an 
account of rice-cultivation in the Hast must be 
interesting to British farmers and gardeners, not 
simply as a matter of curiosity, but for the hints 
which it suggests toward the improved manage- 
ment of all British field plants which love much 
heat and moisture. 
Mr. Porter’s definition of rice, in his Tropical 
Agriculturist, is at once so succinct and correct, that 
we cannot do better than quote his words. ‘* Rice,” 
he says, ‘‘is an annual plant, rising with a round 
jointed stalk, similar to that of wheat, but the 
joints are more numerous; its height varies from 
one to six feet, according to the variety. The 
leaves are subulate, linear, and refiex; embracing 
the stalk—they are not unlike those of the leek. 
The flowers are in a terminating panicle, and are 
succeeded by single oblong seeds, borne on separate 
pedicles, which spring from the main stalk of the 
panicle or ear. The grains are enveloped in rough 
yellow husks, and from each proceeds an awn or 
beard; within the husk is a thin pellicle. The 
whole of the ear more nearly resembles that of oats 
than any other of the grain-bearing plants grown in 
England. These seeds, divested of their husk and 
pellicle, are the rice of commerce. Before they 
are husked they are called Paddy; or more cor- 
rectly Paddie.” It were an endless and a useless 
task to attempt an enumeration of the varieties 
of rice in cultivation. Heyne enumerates no less 
than twenty-three kinds, each having a peculiar 
name and character, grown in the Mysore alone; 
and Baboo Radhakant Deb, has recently given 
twenty different varieties of cultivation in as many 
different districts. The whole, however, may be 
classed as varieties only of the four great heads, 
the Oryza sativa, or common rice, which thrives 
only on marshy soils,—the Oryza precox, which. 
also delights in humid situations,—the mountain rice 
or Oryza mutica, which is cultivated in Cochin 
China, and in Java, and which has its most conge- 
nial situation on the slopes of hills,—and the Oryza 
glutinosa or clammy rice, which is an intermediate 
variety between the mountain rice and the other two 
kinds, ripening sooner than some, and later than 
others, and growing alike on wet and dry soils. 
The periods of maturation of course depend not only 
on the subvarieties of the plant, but on the soil and 
climate, and hence the common rice takes according 
to circumstances from three to even seven months 
