rice, rize, ryce

small fields are surrounded by an earthen rampart descending from which one will sink ankle deep in mud. Rice is very extensively cultivated in India, especially in Bengal, in the Eastern Peninsula and Islands, and in China. It constitutes half the cereal crop of Africa. In 1700 it was accidentally introduced into the Southern States, and is now largely grown here. To a le extent it is grown in southern Europe. It probably supports a larger Roumber of the human race than any other cereal, or indeed than any other plant. It contains 85 per cent. of starch, and is considered le nutritious than wheat. Profe or Watt says that the husked seeds and the flour are demulcent and diuretic. In India they are sometimes used in diseases of the urinary organs and in catarrh, also as an external application to burns and scalds. Canada, Water, or Wild Rice is Zizania aquet ica. [ZIZANIA.] Hungry Rice is Paspalum exile . Mountain Rice, a variety of Oryza sativa , growing in dry places on Indian mountains. [PADDY.] rice-bird, s. Ornith.: The Bob-o'-link (q. v.).