FRUITS AND NUTS 127 



jam or jelly and has also been used as a basis of a fruit juice 

 which is proposed as a rival for grape juice. The color of the 

 juice is a beautiful wine-red and the flavor is quite satisfactory. 



The leaves of the roselle are used to some extent for boiled 

 greens in Hawaii and are used in curries in India. Roselle 

 seeds are quite commonly used as poultry feed and the bast 

 in the bark has been extensively used for fiber. In fact, for 

 many years roselle was grown in India chiefly as a fiber plant. 

 This matter is discussed under fibers. 



Roselle is a good example of a fruit which, while possessing 

 an excellent color and flavor in any preparation for which it 

 is used, has little nutritive value. The fresh fruit contains 

 about I per cent, of protein, 2 per cent, of acid, and about 0.2 

 per cent, of sugar. The flavor of roselle jelly somewhat 

 resembles that of the cranberry but is perhaps more delicate. 



MANGOSTEEN 



Many writers on tropical fruits have considered the man- 

 gosteen as the most delicious of all known fruits, but this is 

 a matter of taste. The mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) 

 is a tree of medium size native to the Federated Malay States. 

 The leaves are large and glossy green and the tree comes into 

 bearing at about 10 years of age. The fruit is purplish-brown, 

 spherical in shape, and 2 or 3 inches in diameter. The rind 

 is thick, tough, and leathery and surrounds the white edible 

 pulp in which the seed are embedded. Each fruit contains 

 from one to 4 or 5 seed, but often only one of these seed is 

 fully developed. The mangosteen thrives best at low altitudes 

 in hot moist districts. It is therefore strictly tropical in dis- 

 tribution. The tree which ultimately attains a height of 20 to 

 30 feet is of extremely slow growth. Seedling mangosteens 

 are inferior in flavor and other qualities to grafted varieties. 

 Most mangosteens, however, are seedlings since thus far little 

 attention has been given to artificial methods of propagation. 



