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.
An Australian climbing plant of the leguminous family. The long, carrot-shaped, woody root was called, by the early settlers in that country, sarsaparilla, and is still used in infusion as a substitut...
A New Zealand tree, called Wahahe by the natives, who employ the leaves as a substitute for hops, and also prepare from them a spirituous infusion as a stomachic medicine.
A plant of the order _Musaceae_, from South America. The young shoots are eaten by the natives, and the fruits are also collected and used as food. It also furnishes a useful fiber.
A tree of tropical America growing in damp forests, especially in the Amazon valley, which, together with other trees called siphonia furnish the Para rubber, or American caoutchouc. The sap is collec...
The flowers of this malvaceous plant contain a quantity of astringent juice, and, when bruised, rapidly turn black or deep purple; they are used by the Chinese ladies for dyeing their hair and eyebrow...
This species is known in the West Indies as red sorrel, on account of the calyxes and capsules having an acid taste. They are made into cooling drinks, by sweetening and fermentation. The bark contain...
A plant common to many tropical countries. Its wood is extremely light when dry, and is employed by the Polynesians for getting fire by friction, which is said to be a very tedious and tiresome operat...
This is the poisonous manchineel tree of South America and other tropical regions. The virulent nature of the juice of this tree has given it a reputation equal to that forced upon the upas tree of Ja...
This tropical plant is known as the sand-box tree. Its deep-furrowed, rounded, hard-shelled fruit is about the size of an orange, and when ripe and dry, it bursts open with a sharp noise like the repo...
The locust tree of the West Indies; also called algarroba in tropical regions. This is one of the very largest growing trees known, and living trees in Brazil are supposed to have been growing at the...
The doum, or doom palm, or gingerbread of Egypt; it grows also in Nubia, Abyssinia, and Arabia. The fibrous, mealy husks of the seeds are eaten, and taste almost like gingerbread. In the Thebias this...
The incense tree of Guiana, a tall-growing tree, furnishing wood of great durability. It is called cedar wood on account of its fragrant odor. The balsam from the trunk is highly odoriferous, and used...