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.
A plant of the pepper family, which furnishes the root called Ava by the Polynesians. It has narcotic properties, and is employed medicinally, but is chiefly remarkable for the value attached to it as...
An Australian cycad, the seeds of which contain a large amount of farina, or starchy matter, which formerly supplied a considerable amount of food for the natives of that country. The fresh seeds are...
A low-growing tree of the West Indies, which produces an edible fruit called the Barbadoes cherry.
The fruit of this tree, under the name of mammee apple, is very much esteemed in tropical countries. It often attains a size of 6 or 8 inches in diameter and is of a yellow color. The outer rind and t...
This climbing-plant is a native of South America, and belongs to the family of _Cinchonaceae_. The rind of the root has emetic properties, and is used in Brazil for dropsy and other diseases. It is al...
The mango, in some of its varieties esteemed as the most delicious of tropical fruits, while many varieties produce fruit whose texture resembles cotton and tastes of turpentine. The unripe fruit is p...
Bussu palm of South America. Its large leaves are used for thatching roofs, for which purpose they are well fitted and very durable. The fibrous spathe furnishes a material of much value to the native...
This euphorbiaceous plant yields cassava or mandiocca meal. It is extensively cultivated in tropical climates and supplies a great amount of food. The root is the part used, and in its natural conditi...
The arrowroot plant, cultivated for its starch. The tubers being reduced to pulp with water, the fecula subsides, and is washed and dried for commerce. It is a very pure kind of starch, and very nutri...
The Moriche, or Ita palm, very abundant on the banks of the Amazon, Rio Negro, and Orinoco Rivers. In the delta of the latter it occupies swampy tracts of ground, which are at times completely inundat...
An Amazonian palm called Inaja. The spathes are so hard that, when filled with water, they will stand the fire, and are sometimes used by the Indians as cooking utensils. The Indians who prepare the k...
A native of Australia and the islands of the Indian Ocean. The leaves, being fermented, are distilled, and yield an oil known as cajuput or cajeput oil, which is green, and has a strong aromatic odor....