The plant group dealt with in this paper comprises two cultivated species, Oryza sativa L, and 0. glaberrima Steud. and their respective wild relatives, 0. perennis Moench and 0. breviligulata Chev. et Roehr. On circumstantial evidence, sativa must have arisen from the Asian form of perennis (Oka and Chang 1962;Oka 1964a), and glaberrima from breviligulata independently of sativa (Morishima et al. 1963). 0. glaberrima and 0. breviligulata (Series Glaberrima) are endemic to West Africa, while 0. sativa and 0.