THE ROSELLE 



By W. M. Buswei.Iv. 



WHILE walking along the street in the city of Tampa 

 just before Thanksgiving, I noticed some odd looking 

 things in a box in front of a grocery store. Curious to know 

 what sort of fruit or vegetable they could be, I asked the 

 groceryman, who told me that they were "Florida cranberries." 



RosELT.E Fruit and Calyx— A'«///rrt/ size 



"Cranberries," 1 said, "surely you don't call those things cran- 

 berries." "Yes, they are Florida cranberries. I could not get 

 the other kind, so I got some of these. Some of the farmers 

 grow them and you can scarcely tell the difference when made 

 into sauce or jelly." 



The grocer did not seem U> knuw of any other name for 

 them, but later I saw them in another place labelled Roselle. 

 That, I thought is probably the real name, so at the first op- 

 portunity I looked it up. This is what I found. "Roselle 

 or Jamaica sorrel. Cultivated in the Tropics where the true 

 cranberry does not grow. Used as a substitute for this fruit 

 in the making of jellies, sauces and marmalades. It is said 

 to be slightly less acid than the cranberry, but otherwise the 

 flavor is much the same." 



