April 1908.] 



313 



Edible Producti. 



on a large scale has not yet, to the 

 knowledge of the writer, been under- 

 taken by anyone. 



The assumption by Royle* that the 

 name roselle is a corruption of the 

 French word " oseille " (the equivalent 

 of the English " sorrel ") -eems very prob- 

 able. In the ivolutionary stages the 

 name has at different times been spelled 

 " rouselle," " rozella," and " rosella." 



BOTANICAL CHARACTERS AND 

 RELATION SHIPS. 



Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa, L.), or 

 Jamaica sorrel, as it is sometimes called, 

 is an annual from the Tropics from the 

 Old World belonging to the large family 

 Malvaceae. Itself furnishing the roselle 

 fibre of commerce, it is closely related 

 to several genera containing fibre pro- 

 ducing plants : Sida, Malva, Althea, and 

 Lavatera. Its most important relative 

 is cotton (Gossypium, sp.). Of veget- 

 ables, okra (Hibiscus esculentus, L,) is 

 related to the roselle. Among related 

 ornamental plants may be mentioned 

 species of Abutilon, Hibiscus, Althea, 

 and Malva. 



The habit of the roselle is similar to 

 that of the cotton plant; the stem is 

 reddish, branching profusely. As usually 

 planted— that is, in February and March 

 — the roselle attains a height of from 5 

 to 7 feet. The leaves on the young 

 plants are entire ; as the plant increases 

 in size the leaves change to palmately 

 five parted ; later, the leaves in whose 

 axils the flowers are borne are three 

 parted. The large almost sessile yellow 

 flowers, eacn with a red eye, are usually 

 borne singly in the axils of the leaves. 

 They fade before the day is past and the 

 subsequent enlargement of the calyces 

 is then very rapid. In less than three 

 weeks they attain their full size and are 

 ready for picking. If the " fruit," if we 

 may so call it, is not now picked and the 

 seed is allowed to mature, the plant dies 

 early in January, There are in the axils 

 of the leaves several latent flower buds, 

 and when the calyces are picked as soon 

 as they are full grown these buds develop 

 and the productivity of the plart is 

 greatly increased. 



VARIETIES. 



The roselle being a plant of recent 

 cultivation, and one that only to a slight 

 extent has been exploited for commercial 

 profit except as a fibre plant, it having 

 been grown mostly as a curiosity in the 

 gardens of interested individuals with- 

 out any thought of improving the 

 plant, it is only natural that no cultural 



* Royle, J. F. Fibrous Plants of India, 1855, 

 p. 260. 



40 



varieties have developed.* Without any 

 thought of improving the roselle, the 

 writer during the summer of 1904 obtain- 

 ed a few plants in Coconut Grove, Fla., 

 from Mr. W. A. H. Hobbs, and planted 

 them in the Subtropical Garden, Miami, 

 Fla., in order to have the plant under 

 observation. 



As the plants bloomed and fruited the 

 marked variations in the fruits on the 

 different plants suggested that there 

 was an excellent opportunity to breed a 

 new and distinct strain of the roselle, 

 and at the suggestion of Prof. P. H. 

 Rolfs, at that time Pathologist in charge 

 of the Subtropical Laboratory and 

 Garden, seed was saved from the best 

 plants. With this seed for stock the 

 writer began systematized breeding the 

 next year. A number of the plants 

 fruiting in the autumn of 1906 had calyces 

 of such lar^e size and exhibited such 

 distinct characters that they were 

 thought worthy of naming as a variety, 

 and the name " Victor " has therefore 

 been given to this sort. 



When it is remembered that these are 

 from plants in the second generation, 

 the improvement is remarkable. As it 

 was thought that these plants might be a 

 special strain, inquiries were made to 

 find out whether the original plants had 

 auy previous history, but this inquiry 

 only served to confirm the fact that they 

 were of the ordinary variety grown in 

 Florida. Mr. William A. Taylor, of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, suggested to 

 the writer that this capacity for improve- 

 ment might be due to the fact that the 

 roselle has previously been principally 

 grown for fibre, which doubtless is 

 correct. Another attempt to breed the 

 roselle was made bv Dr. H. J. Webber 

 in the nineties at Busfcis, Fla., where 

 the Subtropical Laboratory was then 

 located. This work was, unfortunately, 

 terminated by the severe freeze of 1895. 



The plants of the Victor variety are 

 inclined to be a trifle more dwarf than 

 the common kind, but the foliage is 

 similar. The measurements of the calyx 

 of the common variety are, length 33 

 mm., diameter 22 mm.; in the improved 

 type the measurements are 49 mm. and 

 28 mm., respectively. The increase in 

 size is thus seen to be rather more in 

 length than in diameter. Calyces of 

 the improved type have, in some in- 

 stances, been 60 mm. long and 38 mm. in 

 diameter. The improved type is also 

 distinct in being more strongly ribbed 



* Since this article was written, 0. W. Barrett, 

 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, has informed the 

 writer that he has heard of a variety with straw- 

 colored calyced. This report, however, has not 

 been verified, 



