Fig. 132. Rice

The Description.

            Rice is like unto Darnel in show, as Theophrastus saith: it bringeth not forth an ear; like corn, but a certain mane or plume, as Mill, or Millet, or rather like Panic. The leaves, as Pliny writeth, are fat and full of substance, like to the blades of leeks, but broader: but (if neither the soil nor climate did alter the same) the plants of Rice that did grow in my garden had leaves soft and grassy like barley. The flower did not show itself with me, by reason of the injury of our unseasonable year 1596. Theophrastus concludeth, that it hath a flower of a purple colour. But, saith my author, Rice hath leaves like unto Dog's Grass or Barley, a small straw or stem full of joints like corn: at the top whereof groweth a bush or tuft far unlike to barley or Darnel, garnished with round knobs like small gooseberries, wherein the seed or grain is contained: every such round knob hath one small rough ail, tail, or beard like unto barley hanging thereat. Aristobulus, as Strabo reporteth, showeth, That Rice grows in water in Bactria, and near Babylon, and is two yards high, and hath many ears, and bringeth forth plenty of seed. It is reaped at the setting of the seven stars, and purged as Spelt and Oatmeal, or hulled as French Barley.

The Place.

            It groweth in the territories of the Bactrians, in Babylon, in Susium, and in the lower part of Syria. It groweth in those days not only in those countries before named, but also in the fortunate Islands, and in Spain, from whence it is brought unto us, purged and prepared as we see, after the manner of French Barley. It prospereth best in fenny and waterish places.

            It is sown in the spring in India, as Eratosthenes witnesseth, when it is moistened with summer showers.

The Names.

            The Latins keep the Greek word Oryza: in French it is called Riz: in the German tongue, Risz, and Rys; in English, Rice.

The Temperature and Virtues.

            Galen saith, That all men use to stay the belly with this grain, being boiled after the same manner that Chondrus is. In England we use to make with milk and Rice a certain food or pottage, which doth both meanly bind the belly, and also nourish. Many other good kinds of food is made with this grain, as those that are skilful in cookery can tell.