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.
This is the tea plant of South America, where it occupies the same important position in the domestic economy of the country as the Chinese tea does in this. The _mate_ is prepared by drying and roast...
This magnoliaceous plant is a native of China, and its fruit furnishes the star anise of commerce. In China, Japan, and India it is used as a condiment in the preparation of food, and is chewed to pro...
A native of the Southern States. The leaves are said to be poisonous; hence, the plant is sometimes called poison bag. The bark has been used as a substitute for cascarilla.
The calabash tree of the West Indies, where it is valued for the sake of its fruits, which resemble pumpkins in appearance and occasionally reach a diameter of 18 inches. Divested of their pulp, which...
This West Indian shrub is sometimes called seaside balsam or sage. A thick, yellowish, aromatic juice exudes from the extremities of the broken branches, or wherever the stem has been wounded. In Mart...
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...