[boost] help with boost::property_tree erasing nested entries please

All, I would appreciate some help with erasing a nested node entry in property_tree. Below is my example. (2) works, but only erases an entire tree. (1) doesn't but it's really what I want. Thank you for any help. (I'm sorry, the documentation is not very verbose on this topic.) -- Bernd #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <boost/property_tree/ptree.hpp> using namespace std; namespace pt = boost::property_tree; int main(void) { pt::ptree props; props.put("db.name", "Sesame"); props.put("user.name", "Ali Baba"); cout << props.erase("db.name") << " children erased. " << endl; // (1) cout << props.erase("db")<< " children erased. " << endl; // (2) }