Contributions to the history and bibliography of the roselle 
P. J. WESTER 
The date of the earliest introduction of the roselle, Hibiscus 
Sabdariffa L., into the United States is unknown. It was intro- 
duced from Australia into California fifteen years ago and seems 
to have been introduced into Florida somewhat earlier, but at 
what date and by whom is obscure. Not until the last few years 
has the plant, in the United States, received the attention it 
deserves, but it is now, as its useful qualities become better known, 
being planted more widely. For several years the writer has been 
engaged in the study of the roselle and its improvement, in the 
course of which work it was thought desirable to trace its early 
history. The following notes have been prepared as a result of 
this effort. The writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness 
to Miss Audrey Goss for the translation of the description of the 
roselle plant by Clusius and other quotations from works pub- 
lished in Latin. 
The earliest reference to the roselle, accompanied by a woodcut, 
of which FIGURE 1 is a reproduction, that has come to the attention 
of the writer, occurs in Stirpium Historia, by the Flemish botanist 
M. de L’Obel, published in 1576. That the plant was then new 
to him may be inferred not only from the fact that he does not 
mention the plant in his Stirpium Adversaria Nova, published 
four years before, but from his expression, ‘‘Huc spectat perelegans 
& nova planta quam quidam Sabdariffam vocat.”’ The species 
was probably brought westward from India by the Mohammedans, 
who several centuries before this date invaded India. That the 
plant was from the first known by the name Sabdariffa, a Turkish 
word according to Drury,* lends color to this belief. Neither 
L’Obel nor other early authors that have come to the attention of 
the writer, refer to the circumstances under which the plant was 
introduced into Europe. 
Dalechamps figures two woodcuts in his work ¢ under the 
* Drury, H. ‘Useful Plants of India 252. 1858. : 
}Dalechamps, J. Historia Generalis Plantarum 595. 1587. 
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