236 THE LOTUS OF THE GOOD LAW 



lotus and water lilies, and ponds, covered by 

 delicate aquatic plants, on which swam red geese, 

 ducks, and swans." 



The early Indian gardens were evolved very 

 much on the lines that the climate and flowers 

 of the plains would lead us to expect. Apart 

 from the Pleasure Hill, their outstanding features 

 were the flowering trees, the creepers, and the 

 aquatic plants ; the mango, asoka, and champaka 

 groves, the bignonia, jasmine, and convolvulus 

 bowers, and the lotus and water lilies floating on 

 the ponds. Along the foot of the Himalayas, in 

 Bengal, Burmah, Cambodia, and Java, gardens 

 such as these flourished until, as we have seen, 

 the coming of the Mughals changed the aspect 

 of the Indian gardens. Once introduced, the 

 new fashion took firm hold, for the Central Asian 

 water-garden based on the system of irrigation 

 was one specially suited to the arid plains of 

 Upper India and the dry red rocks of the Raj- 

 putana hills. 



The Indian Buddhist garden, forgotten in the 

 land of its origin, still survives further East, 

 although so transformed and tinged by the genius 

 of another climate and another people, that the 

 garden history of the plum and cherry tree, the 



