THE PARK, 135 



and very useful trees, the gab, and hence popularly 

 called bangab. 



For its elegant and graceful form and its fragrant 

 flowers, the bakul is a universal favorite with the Hindus. 

 It adorns the rich man's garden, shelters the poor man's 

 cottage, and forms an appropriate adjunct to holy shrines 

 and mathas. There is scarcely a town or village of any 

 pretension in India which has not a few fine trees as 

 places of public resort, and, more often than not, one of 

 them is a bakuL How well do I remember those 

 delightful summer mornings, when half awake, half 

 asleep, I used to walk with nimble steps towards the bakul 

 tree of our village to gather flowers which lay thickly scat- 

 tered on the ground. Great would be my sorrow if, by 

 chance or ill luck, I was late any morning, and found th e 

 merry companions of my boyhood already in the field. 

 But we were not the only competitors for the spoil; with 

 the sun-shine came bees aud butterflies to taste the sweet 

 nectar which lay hidden in the tiny cup of the flower. 

 But it is impossible to look back upon those days with- 

 out a shade of grief and shame at the thought that in 

 spite of my love and fondness for the bakul flower 

 from childhood onwards I never cared to study it 

 carefully, and examine and admire its beautiful struc- 

 ture, until the venerable Svamiji opened my eyes to 

 look at it in a new light. It was only then that I real- 

 ized that the sweet fragrant little flower is a marvel of 

 skill and workmanship, its every part being admirably 

 adapted for the particular work it is called upon 



