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 West Indian tree yields a small fruit which has a strong smell of garlic, hence it is called the garlic pear. The bark is bitter and used as a tonic.
The jack of the Indian Archipelago, cultivated for its fruit, which is a favorite article among the natives, as also are the roasted seeds. The wood is much used, and resembles mahogany. Bird-lime is...
Every part of this South American palm is covered with sharp spines. It is cultivated to some extent by the Indians of Brazil for the sake of its young leaves, which furnish a strong fiber for making...
This palm furnishes Cahoun nuts, from which is extracted cohune oil, used as a burning oil, for which purpose it is superior to cocoanut oil. Piassaba fiber is furnished by this and _A. funifera_, the...
This is called the blimbing, and is cultivated to some extent in the East Indies. The fruit is oblong, obtuse-angled, somewhat resembling a short, thick cucumber, with a thin, smooth, green rind, fill...
The caramba of Ceylon and Bengal. The fruit of this tree is about the size of a large orange, and, when ripe, is of a rich yellow color, with a very decided and agreeable fragrance. The pulp contains...
The Marajah palm, of Brazil, which grows upon the banks of the Amazon River. It has a succulent, rather acid fruit, from which a vinous beverage is prepared. _B. minor_ has a stem about 14 feet high a...
This shrub is the algarrobo of the Chilians. It belongs to the pea family. Its pods are short and thick, and when unripe contain about 80 per cent of tannic acid; the ripe pods become transformed into...
A native of Arabia Felix, producing a gum resin, sometimes called Opobalsamum, which was considered by the ancients as a panacea for almost all the ills that flesh is heir to. _B. mukul_ yields a resi...