JAHANGIR'S MEMOIRS 67 



At present they look heavy and stumpy, but in 

 the future, when they tower with their graceful 

 heads above the cypress trees, they will mark the 

 centre of the gardens, without obstructing the 

 view of the monument ; their slender stems 

 repeating the idea of the graceful detached 

 minarets at the four corners of the Taj platform. 

 And in this famous Indian garden these four 

 areca-nut palms opposite the four corners of the 

 tank would combine this artistic purpose with 

 the old Hindu symbolism of the marriage of the 

 fruit trees — one of which was usually a palm — 

 by the well. 



Jahangir, in his Memoirs, mentions an avenue 

 of areca-nut palms in one of Babar's gardens 

 at Agra which had grown ninety feet high. 

 The gardens of Akbar's tomb at Sikandrah 

 were planted with cypress, wild-pine, plane, and 

 supari (areca-nut palm). Another garden made 

 by Jahangir's directions at Sehrind he describes 

 thus : " On entering the garden I found myself 

 immediately in a covered avenue (pergola), 

 planted on each side with scarlet roses, and 

 beyond them arose groves of cypress, fir, plane, 

 and evergreens variously disposed. . . . Passing 

 through these we entered what was in reality 



