Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
A growing reference library of gardening terms, techniques and climate concepts explained in plain language.
Called the African bowstring hemp, from the fibers of the leaves being used for bowstrings.
This tree yields the true sandalwood of India. This fragrant wood is in two colors, procured from the same tree; the yellow-colored wood is from the heart and the white-colored from the exterior, the...
The soapberry tree. The fruit of this plant is about the size of a large gooseberry, the outer covering or shell of which contains a saponaceous principle in sufficient abundance to produce a lather w...
A widely distributed Asiatic tree which yields an acrid, milky juice, which, as also the leaves of the plant, furnishes a kind of dye. The fruit in its green state is acid, and is eaten as a condiment...
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...