RICE.
Lua, . . . Coar.-CHIN. Reiss GER.
Riis DAN. Chuka, . . . . GUJ.
Ryst, Rijst, . . Dum. Riss, . . . . Rus.
Riz, FR. Ris, Sw.
Husked and clamed.
Mi, Kaligmi, . . CHIN. Aris, . . . . MALEAL. Chanwal, . . IliND. Birinj, . . . . PERS.
Riso, Arroz, . . POET., SP.
MOtEj, Gome, Ko, .TAP SANSK.
Tandul, . . . . Man& Arisi, TAM.
Bms, . . . MALAY. Byum, . . . TEL.
Cooked or boiled.
Ubala Cbawul, RIND. I Nasi, . . . . BIALAy.
Khuska, . „ I Glutinous.
No, Ju-mi, No-mi, . CHIN. I Padi, . . . . MALAY.
In th,e husk.
Aruz, ARAB. Gabah, Padi, . MALAY.
Tau, CHIN. Nelloo, . . . TAM.
Dhan, HIND. Udlu, TEL.
This is one of the most extensively diffused and useful of grain crops, and supports a great number of the human race.
The exports from British India, and the imports into Great Britain have been rapidly increasing. The importe into dreat Britain from 1847 to 1857 ranged from 38,529 to 78,658 tons. In 1882, Britain imported 412,486 tons, value £3,297,414. In the eleven years 1850-51 to 1860-61 inclusive, the quantity of rice exported from British India varied from 777,572 quarters, value 1672,438, in 1850-51, to 32,014,220 quarters, value 12,598,746, in 1855-56. In 1878-79, after India began to recover from a famine, the total export of rice was 2i million tons, valued at Rs. 12,66,000. An export duty is levied on rice in India at the rate of 3 annas per maund, or about 6d. per cwt. A similar duty on wheat was repealed in 1873. The exports of rice from British India were- . . 2,692,000 tons Rs. 12,66,000 1879-80, . . 4,362,480 „ „ 24,36,000 1880-81, . . 3,468,930 „ „ 4,82,124 1881-82, . . 4,148,000 „ „ 14,24,017 1882-83, . . 7,420,000 „ „ 12,14,128 Three species and numerous varieties of the rice plant are enumerated by botanists, but they may be resolved into the lowland or aquatic rice (Oryza sativa), and the upland or mountain rice (Oryza Nepalensis). Oryza is the name by which rice was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and has been adopted by botanists as the generic name of the plant that yields this valuable grain. The term paddy is applied to the rice in its natural state—that is, before it is separated froin the outer husk. In this state the natives of Hindustan call it dhau, as well as the plant ; the clean rice they distinguish as chawul. The common or aquatic
rice (O. sativa) is a native of the East Indies, and, unlike many cultivated grains, is still found grow ing wild in and about the borders of the lakes in the Rajamundry Circars. A kind with broader leaves (O. latifolia) is indigentais in Brazil, and Bates mentions having seen it growing wild in abund ance on some of the tributaries of the Amazon. The common rice is cultivated in tropical coun tries, wherever there is a plentiful supply of water for imigation, and succeeds well on land • that is too low and moist for the production of other useful plants. Although grown principally within the tropics, it flourishes well beyond them, yield ing even heavier and better filled grain. Under favourable conditions, it will mature in the cast as high as the 45th parallel of north latitude, and ou the Atlantic seaboard of North America. as far north as 38°. On the west coast it will grow as high up as 40°. It does not necessarily require a very great degree of heat, but • it 'mist have moisture so abundant that the fields on which it grows require to be repeatedly laid under water by irrigation. Without its due degree of moisture it proves ahnost wholly unproductive. But the dry or mountain rice of Cochin-China and Nepal is raised upon a comparatively dry soil, without irrigation. It has been introduced into the United States, and grows several degrees farther north than the Carolina rice ; it has also been cultivated with success in Hungary and Westphalia. At the London Exhibition there were displqed many curious specirnens and varieties of rice grown without irrigation, at elevations from 3000 to G000 feet on the slopes of the Himalayas, where the dampness of the summer months compensates for the want of artificial moisture. The upland rice flourishes on high and poor land in the United States, and produces mere than Indian corn on the same land would do, giving 15 bushels per acre where the corn yields but 7. The swamp rice is more prolific, often yielding in that region as much as from 30 to 70 bushels per acre.