Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
Practical advice on growing food and flowers, improving soil, and making the most of small spaces. Start anywhere — the garden will meet you.
The fruit of this plant is known in the West Indies as the sapodilla plum. It is highly esteemed by the inhabitants; the bark of the tree is astringent and febrifugal; the seeds are aperient and diure...
The bully or balata tree of British Guiana, which furnishes a gum somewhat intermediate between India rubber and gutta-percha, being nearly as elastic as the first without the brittleness and friabili...
The root of this plant is used medicinally and the resin that exudes from the tree is employed to astringe the gums. The leaves are so filled with resinous fluid that when they are immersed in water i...
This furnishes the fiber known as manilla hemp, and is cultivated in the Philippine Islands for this product. The finer kinds of the fiber are woven into beautiful shawls and the coarser manufactured...
This cinchonaceous plant is a native of Ceylon. The bark and leaves are esteemed as tonic and febrifuges in the Mauritius, where they are known as wild cinchona. The leaves and flowers are also used a...
The nutmeg tree. The seed of this plant is the nutmeg of commerce, and mace is the seed cover of the same. When the nuts are gathered they are dried and the outer shell of the seed removed. The mace i...
This plant yields the drug known as balsam of Peru, which is procured by making incisions in the bark, into which cotton rags are thrust; a fire is then made round the tree to liquefy the balsam. The...
A South American tree, also called Myroxylon, which yields the resinous drug called balsam of Tolu. This substance is fragrant, having a warm, sweetish taste, and burns with an agreeable odor. It is u...
native of western Asia, but now grows abundantly in Italy, Spain, and the south of France. Among the ancients the myrtle was held sacred to Venus and was a plant of considerable importance, wreaths of...
A shrub belonging to the family of berberries. It is a native of China and Japan, where it is extensively cultivated for its fruits. It is there known as Nandin.
A native of the Malayan Islands, which yields the Gambir, or Terra Japonica of commerce. This is prepared by boiling the leaves in water until the decoction thickens, when it is poured into molds, whe...
The greenheart, or bibiru tree of British Guiana, furnishing bibiru bark, which is used medicinally as a tonic and febrifuge, its properties being due to the presence of an uncrystallizable alkaloid,...