The Probert Encyclopaedia of Nature

RICE

Rice (Oryza sativa) is a cereal plant of the family Graminaceae or Grasses. It is an important food plant. The culm of the rice is from 30 centimetres to two meters high, annual, erect, simple, round and jointed; the leaves are large, firm and pointed, arising from very long, cylindrical, and finely striated sheaths; the flowers are disposed in a panicle somewhat resembling that of the oat; the seeds are white and rectangular, but vary in size and form in the numerous varieties. Cultivation requires a hot summer with plenty of water.

The production of rice in America was begun in 1695 in South Carolina, when the captain of a brigantine from Madagascar, which touched at Sullivan's Island, presented one of the colonists with a small bag of the vegetable. Cultivation spread rapidly through the South and quickly became one of the main sources of income.
Research Rice