250 MOONLIGHT GARDENS 



himself has many flowers sacred to him beside 

 his blue lotus. The chambeli (jasmine) is sacred 

 to him, and also to Kama Deva, the Indian Cupid. 

 But the champaka, the " pagoda tree " of the 

 old Anglo-Indian phrase " to shake the pagoda 

 tree," is more especially Kama Deva's flower. 

 It is essentially the tree of Cambodia, the place 

 name Cambodia being in Sanskrit Champak. 

 Jahangir puts it first on his list of Indian flowers, 

 saying : " It is a flower of exceedingly sweet 

 fragrance ; it has the shape of a saffron-flower, 

 but is yellow inclining to white. The tree is very 

 symmetrical and large, full of branches and 

 leaves, and is shady. When in flower one tree 

 will perfume the garden." Earrings and neck- 

 laces are made from its sweet thick -petalled 

 buds, and very bewitching the Hindu ladies look 

 when they wear Kama's flowers. Recently the 

 fashion has crept into palace zenanas of wearing 

 pearl and diamond jewelry every evening. But 

 formerly the ladies wore such ornaments only for 

 special festivities, and decked themselves at other 

 times with a sweet-scented flower -jewelry of 

 chambeli and champaka buds. Almost every 

 Anglo-Indian garden can show some of these 

 quick -growing trees, with their curious india- 



