There are three kinds of rice grains, long, medium and short.  Long grain rice produces separate fluffy grains when cooked and is perfect for soups and pilafs.  The fragrant basmati rice, grown in the foothills of the Himalayas and Pakistan, is a long grain rice that improves with age and is useally carefully matured.  Medium grain and short grain rice tend to stick together when cooked, making them more suited to puddings, rice rings and risottos.  The Italian Arborio rice, a stubby short grain rice with a pearly spot, falls into this category. 

Parbliled rice undergoes a vacuum heating before the outer layers are removed, focing some of the nutriens from the outer layers into the rice grain.  Then, the hull and bran layers are removed.

Brown rice is still encased in its nutritinal bran layer, with only the outer bark removed.  It has a nutty flavor and chewy texture and takes longer to cook than white rice.  Wild rice is actually the seed of a grass the grows wild in North America and is closer in nutitoan makup to wheat.