ir 



PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 381 



berries ; drupes large, fleshy, glossy, black, with heavy bloom, adhering 

 rather closely to the receptacle; seeds small; pedicels slender, 

 thorny; calyx of medium size; flesh dark purplish red or black, firm 

 and meaty but juicy and tender; flavor subacid with pleasant aroma; 

 quality good to very good. Season, early June in Cowley County, 

 Kans. 



The bush is a strong, vigorous grower, apparently hardy and worthy 

 of planting wherever the blackcaps succeed, especially in the prairie 

 region, where many of the eastern varieties fail. 



The specimen illustrated in Plate XXXIV was grown by the 

 Winfield Nursery Company, Winfield, Kans. 



VICTOR ROSELLE. 

 [PLATE XXXV.] 



The roselle, Hibiscus sabdariffa Linn., though native to the Old 

 World Tropics, has long been sparingly introduced to the West Indies 

 and elsewhere in tropical America. It was reported in Jamaica as 

 early as 1707 a by Hans Sloane, who stated that it was planted in 

 most gardens of that island, where "The capsular leaves are made use 

 of for making Tarts, Gellies, and Wine, to be used in fevers and hot 

 distempers, to allay heat and quench thirst." In Florida, where the 

 date of its introduction, though unrecorded, is evidently recent, it 

 is very commonly known as " Jamaica Sorrel," and in parts of tropi- 

 cal America, notably the Canal Zone, it bears this name, indicating 

 the Jamaican channel through which the species was probably dis- 

 tributed in the New World. Notwithstanding its long recognition 

 as a valuable plant in both the Old and the New Worlds, little atten- 

 tion appears to have been paid to the development of improved 

 strains until recently. In fact, so far as known the Victor is the first 

 variety or race to be dignified with a varietal name. This is probably 

 due to the fact that in India, as has been stated by Wester, 5 the 

 species, though recognized as possessing edible qualities, has chiefly 

 been grown as a fiber plant rather than for its edible calyces, the 

 portion prized in the American Tropics. As the plant is a tropical 

 annual requiring at least six months of warm weather free from frost 

 to bring it up to the beginning of its harvest period and about two 

 months more to mature its full crop, its chief interest to American 

 planters will be in southern Florida and frost-free localities in Calif ornia, 

 together with Porto Rico, the Canal Zone, Hawaii, and the Philippines. 

 Its luxuriant growth and great productiveness may render it sufficiently 

 profitable in some sections where frost occurs too early to permit its 

 seed to ripen, however. It appears not improbable that earlier 



a Natural History of Jamaica, 1707, vol. 1, p. 224. 

 & Farmers' Bulletin 307, p. 9. 



