where it abounds wild in all the shallow streams. The seeds contribute
essentially to the support of the wandering tribes of Indians, and
feed immense flocks of wild swans, geese, and other water fowl.
Pinkerton says, this plant seems intended to become the bread-corn of
the North. Two other species of Zizania are common in the United
States of America.

Rice, the chief food, perhaps, of one-third of the human race,
possesses the advantage attending wheat, maize, and other grains, of
preserving plenty during the fluctuations of trade, and is also
susceptible of cultivation on land too low and moist for the
production of most other useful plants. Although cultivated
principally within the tropics, it flourishes well beyond, producing
even heavier and better filled grain. Like many other plants in common
use, it is now found wild [it is to be understood that the wild rice,
or water oat (_Zizania aquatica_), already referred to, which grows
along the muddy shores of tide waters, is a distinct plant from the
common rice, and should not be confounded with it], nor is its native
country known. Linnaeus considers it a native of Ethiopia, while others
regard it of Asiatic origin.

The chief variety of this cereal is cultivated throughout the torrid
zone, wherever there is a plentiful supply of water, and it will
mature, under favorable circumstances, in the Eastern continent, as
high as the 45th parallel of north latitude, and as far south as the
38th. On the Atlantic side of the Western continent, it will flourish
as far north as latitude 38 degrees, and to a corresponding parallel
south. On the Western coast of America, it will grow so far north as
40 or more degrees. Its general culture is principally confined to
India, China, Japan, Ceylon, Madagascar, Eastern Africa, the South of
Europe, the Southern portions of the United States, the Spanish Main,
Brazil, and the Valley of Parana and Uruguay.

In 1834, 29,583 bags of rice were shipped from Maranham, but I am not
aware what have been the exports since.

At the Industrial Exhibition in London, in 1851, there were displayed
many curious specimens and varieties of rice, grown without
irrigation, at elevations of three thousand to six thousand feet on
the Himalaya, where the dampness of the summer months compensates for
the want of artificial moisture. Among these American rice received
not only honorable mention for its very superior quality, but the
Carolina rice, exhi