AMERICAN FORESTRY 



299 



THE ROSELLE PLANT 



BY H. E. ZIMMERMAN 



FRUITS and economic plants indigenous to the tropics 

 are now as never before attracting the attention of 

 the people of the United States. The Roselle plant, in- 

 troduced by Dr. Harvey Wiley in 1908, has recently 

 become of great interest. In the Gulf States and the 

 West Indies it is known as "Jamaica Sorrell," and it has 

 suddenly acquired a high commercial value in the Philip- 

 pines, Hawaii, and other Pacific islands. 



The Roselle plant is an annual, 5 to 7 feet in height, 

 and branches profusely. It is cultivated much like corn, 

 yielding from 1,800 to 2,000 blossoms on a bush, and 

 when in bloom resembles a rose bush and presents a 

 very beautiful sight. It is probably the only plant in 

 cultivation in which the part utilized for food is the 

 calyx. This calyx possesses excellent qualities for the 



ANOTHER USEFUL MEMBER OF THE PLANT ARMY 



Combining beauty and utility the Roselle plant offers a resource of much 

 value, and its cultivation may be an important factor in the campaign 

 for food production. 



manufacture of jelly and allied products. One Chicago 

 firm uses from $50,000 to $100,000 worth every year. 

 Preparations made from it closely resemble in color and 

 flavor those made from the cranberry. In three weeks 

 from the time of blooming, which occurs in October, the 

 calyces are large enough to be picked, and make a jelly 

 of lighter red color than if allowed to mature. This fruit 

 is also used in making sauce, jam, flavoring extracts 

 for soda water fountains, and also for coloring jellies, 

 jams, or similar products as a substitute for coal-tar 

 dyes where a bright red color is desired. 



To prepare for cooking, the fruit pod is taken between 

 the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, stem end 

 up, cutting off the stem and basal end of the calyx 

 where the seed pod is united with the calyx, when, with 

 a slight pressure of the fingers holding the pod, the 

 seed pod will be forced out. 



In India this plant is grown for its fiber, which is used 

 in the manufacture of cordage and coarser textile prod- 

 ucts. In that country the leaves are sometimes used as 

 a salad and the seeds are supposed to have medicinal 

 properties. They are also fed to cattle and poultry. 



NEW YORK STATE ENCOURAGES PLANTING 



"V7" OUNG trees at a special price of fifty cents per 

 -*- thousand have been offered by the Conservation 

 Commission to cities and villages that will use them for 

 reforesting purposes. This price covers only the cost 

 of packing, says Commissioner George D. Pratt in a 

 letter sent to the mayor or president of every city and 

 village in the state, and is made in order to afford an 

 unusual opportunity to plant city or village lands, or 

 lands owned in connection with city or village water 

 supply. 



"Cheap and unprofitable land, such as may be found in 

 the vicinity of almost any city or village," writes Com- 

 missioner Pratt, "might well be converted into com- 

 munal forests by being planted at once with suitable 

 young trees and developed by the municipality. Such 

 forests throughout the state would in the future provide 

 an abundant supply of lumber and fuel for the communi- 

 ties that maintain them. 



"If your city or village has never planted trees before, 

 I would urge that you make a beginning this year. It 

 is a comparatively easy matter to plant several thousand 

 trees, as two men can plant a thousand trees in a day. 

 One thousand trees will re-forest an acre. Over thirty 

 of the cities and villages in the state are now planting 

 trees and some of these have planted very extensively. 

 In some cases, school children have done reforesting 

 work as part of their Arbor Day exercises." 



The price of the trees which the state is offering to 

 municipalities at fifty cents per thousand would, if sold 

 to private applicants, be charged at $4 per thousand, 

 according to the Forestry Division of the Conservation 

 Commission, which has charge of distributing each 

 spring the ten million young trees which the state raises 

 annually in its five nurseries. Even the $4 price covers 

 only the actual cost of raising the trees, as the state asks 

 no profit. 



HP HE short course for forest ranger students closed at 

 -* the State University of Montana at the end of 

 March. Most of the students in the course returned to 

 their ranger districts in the National Forest with the 

 opening of spring. 



T> ECENT examination of a nine-year-old forest plan- 

 -"-*- tation near Syracuse by College of Forestry men 

 brought to light a number of specimens 30 feet tall and 

 8 inches in diameter on the stump. 



