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 Cyprus turpentine tree. The turpentine flows from incisions made in the trunk and soon becomes thick and tenacious, and ultimately hardens. Galls gathered from this tree are used for tanning purpo...
The pistacia tree, which yields the eatable pistachio nuts. It is a native of western Asia. The nuts are greatly eaten by the Turks and Greeks, as well as in the south of Europe, either simply dried l...
This leguminous plant yields eatable pods, which are fed to cattle in Brazil. Some Mexican species produce pods that are boiled and eaten, and certain portions contain saponaceous properties. The pods...
A plant from New Zealand, which reaches a considerable size, and furnishes a wood similar to boxwood. The flowers are very fragrant.
The inner bark of the young branches of this plant yields a very fine fiber, sometimes called New Zealand cotton, though more like flax than cotton; it is the Akaroa of the New Zealanders. In Tasmania...
A Brazilian tree which bears a fruit known in that country as Pacoury-uva. The pulp of this fruit is semiacid, very delicious, and is employed in making preserves. The seeds embedded in this pulp have...
The root of this plant is called Herbe du Diable in San Domingo; it is acrid in the highest degree, and is a most energetic blistering agent when fresh.
A South American plant. The flowers are used in perfumery, and furnish the scent known as Frangipane or Frangipani. In Jamaica the plant is known as red jasmine.
This plant affords the celebrated patchouli perfume. The peculiar odor of patchouli is disagreeable to some, but is very popular with many persons. The odoriferous part of the plant is the leaves and...
Some years ago this tree was recommended as suitable for avenue-planting in the south of France. In India an oil called poonga is expressed from the seeds, which is much used for mixing with lamp oil....
This plant belongs to the cinchonaceous family, and is said to possess properties similar to those of the true cinchona. The bark is exceedingly bitter.
This is the purple guava from China. The fruits are filled with juicy, pale flesh, of a very agreeable acid-sweet flavor.