Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
A growing reference library of gardening terms, techniques and climate concepts explained in plain language.
This plant furnishes cascarilla bark, used as an aromatic bitter tonic, having no astringency. It has a fragrant smell when burnt, on which account it has been mixed with smoking tobacco.
A plant of the family _Euphorbiaceae_, from the Indian Archipelago, which produces the seeds from whence croton oil is extracted. It is a very powerful medicine, and even in pressing the seeds for the...
A native of Java, which furnishes the cubeb fruits of commerce. These fruits are like black pepper, but stalked, and have an acrid, hot, aromatic taste; frequently used medicinally.
A tropical plant cultivated in many warm countries for the sake of its seeds, known as physic nuts. The juice of the plant, which is milky, acrid, and glutinous, produces an indelible brown stain on l...
A plant belonging to the _Zingiberaceae_, the roots of which furnish turmeric. This powder is used in India as a mild aromatic, and for other medicinal purposes. It also enters into the composition of...
This plant furnishes zedoary tubers, much used in India as aromatic tonics.
This beautiful tree fern is a native of Australia, where it attains a height of 25 to 30 feet, having fronds from 10 to 15 feet in length. It contains a pulpy substance in the center of the stem, of a...
A plant of the order of _Bignoniaceae_, called Atunyangua in the Andes of Peru, where the inhabitants dye their cotton clothes by boiling them along with the leaves of this plant; the dye is a permane...
A native of Malabar, where a kind of sago is prepared from the seeds, which are dried and powdered; medicinal properties are also attributed to the seeds.