Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 381 



cranberry sees little like it in roselle. True, both are tart and both are bright, 

 clear, red, but both, also, have distinctive flavors. 



The National Standard Dispensatory (Hare, Caspari, and Rusby, 1905) 

 says that roselle "is sour from the presence of tartaric and malic (or oxalic?) 

 acids" on which account it is used in hospitals in Mexico as a refrigerant as 

 well as for its mucilage. The root is said to contain saponin. 



The commercial use of roselle in southern California is still very limited, 

 most of the product being raised in private gardens for private use. It is 

 usually to be found in a few of the fruit stores in small quantities in its season. 

 One firm in Los Angeles used a small quantity of it a few years ago in certain 

 bakery products, as a jelly filling, but has been unable to buy it in sufficient 

 quantities since. The Luzon Pineapple Plantation Company of Cabanatuan, 

 Nueva Ecija, P. I., is planning to plant about twenty acres to roselle next year 

 and expects to market it as sauce. 



Roselle is of the easiest culture. It likes a hot, dry climate best but needs 

 occasional irrigating. A long growing season is essential in order to bring 

 the calyxes to proper size. Irrigation, if too frequent, delays maturity, but 

 an abundance of water is said to heighten the red color of the calyxes. A loose 

 deep soil is probably best for it. P. J. Wester, of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, in Farmers' Bulletin 307, advocates the use of commercial fer- 

 tilizers rather than stable manures for roselle. 



The plant has not received the popularity it deserves and when the people 

 once become acquainted with it, surely it will increase in favor and possibly 

 supplant some of the cheap imitation jelly products now on the markets. 



