RICE, Oryza, a geniis' of grasses, having panicles of one-flowered spikelets, with two very small pointed glumes; the florets compressed, the palm strongly nerved. awned or awnless, six stamens, one germen and two feathery stigmas. The only important species is the COMMON R. (0. sativa). oue of the most useful and extensively cultivated of all grains, supplying the principal food of nearly one-third of the human race. It seems to be originally a native of the East Indies, but is now cultivated in all quarters of the globe, and almost wherever the conditions of warmth and moisture are suitable. It is adapted to tropical and subtropical climates, rather to the latter than the former: and requires much moisture, rather, however, in the soil than in the air. Rice is :In annual, varying from one foot to six feet in height. There are many other distinguish ing characters of the varieties in cultivation; some having long awns, and some being awnless; some having the chaff (pales), when ripe, yellow, white, red, black, etc. The seed or grain of rice grows on little separate stalks, springing from the main stalk; and the whole appearance of the plant, when the grain is ripe, may be said to be intermedi ate between that of barley and of oats. Rice requires a moist soil, sometimes flooded; and the cultivation of it has in many places been attended with an increase of intermit tent fevers, and of general unhealthiness, the rice-fields being artificially flooded at certain seasons. The cultivation of rice is most extensively carried on in India, China, Cochin-China, and other s.e. parts of Asia, Japan, Egypt, South Carolina, Georgia, and other southern states of North America. The quantity exported from India, whence we obtain our chief supplies, was, in 1871, estimated at 16,336,335 qrs., valued at £4,468,000. The total import into this country in 1875 was 6,678,452 qrs., value £2,991,354. In some parts of the east, canals are carried along the sides of hills. in order to the irrigation of laud for the cultivation of rice. In Carolina, rice is sown in rows, in the bottom of trenches, which are about 18 inches apart: the trenches are filled with water to the depth of several inches, till the seeds germinate; the water is then drawn off, and afterward the fields are again flooded for rather more titan a fortnight, to kill weeds. They are flooded again, when the grain is near ripening.—In Europe, the cultivation of rice is confined to the most southern regions. It is most extensively carried on in the plains of Lombardy, and in Valencia in Spain. Attempts have been made to cultivate it in more northern parts of Europe, but without success. Marshy situations, where there is always the same abundance of water, are not so suitable to rice as those in which the supply of water is regulated according to the season and the growth of the plant.
Like most cultivated plants, it is very liable to variation, and in India and Ceylon at least, 120 known varieties are cultivated. The best of all rice known in the market is that of Carolina, yet the introduction of rice into that country took place only about the last years of the 17th or the first of the 18th century. Its cultivation there, how ever, rapidly extended.
Rice is known in India as paddy. Another use of this name is to designate rice in the husk.
In China, rice is generally sown pretty thickly on very wet land, and afterward transplanted to the land which it is finally to occupy. The plants tiller or spread at the root very much, so that each sends up several or many stalks. The rice-grounds are carefully kept clear of weeds, although often so wet that a man cannot walk in them , without sinking to the knees. In many parts of China, and in other countries, it is common to obtain two crops of rice in a year.
Rice is shelled and quickly dried before being brought to market. Good Indian rice has the following composition: Per cent.
• Moisture . 13.00 Nitrogenous matter. . 7.44 Starch 77.63 Fatty or oily matter. . . . 0.70 Ash 1.23 100.00 Rice contains, therefore, according to the prevalent views of modern chemists. a smallei amount of flesh and a larger amount of fat-forming or substances Than any other grain. As a food. it is peculiarly well adapted for hot climates, as it appears to be almost a cure for dysentery and other bowel complaints, independently of which it is a sufficiently nutritious food without being heating. Owing to the small quantity of gluten which it contains it is capable by itself only of an imper fect fermentation, and is unlit for being baked into bread. It is, however, subjected to fermentation in many countries. The beer made from rice by the Japanese is called gaki. and is in general use among them; but before being drunk, it is heated in kettles. Seyeral kinds of rice wine are made by the Chinese, some of them highly esteemed, and very intoxicating. A spirit is distilled from the lees, called slanc-chuo or sam-chuo. The common :wrack (q.v.) of the east is made from rice, and rice is also employed to a very great extent by distillers in Britain.
Dice starch is made in considerable quantity in Britain. It is sold under the name of patent starch, and is used in laundries and muslin manufactories. The straw of rice is used to make straw-plait for bonnets.
The refuse of rice, which remains when it is cleaned for the market, and consists of the husk, broken grains, and dust, is valuable as food for cattle. It is known as rice meal and rice-dust.