MOSLEM GARDEN SYMBOLISM 197 



is Laila's round white throat, " cypress-slender " 

 is her waist, tuhps and roses are her hps and 

 cheeks, and the fringed, starred narcissus her 

 eyes. There are other garden legends more 

 difficult to discover, and traditional ways of 

 memoriahsing well-known verses by the planting 

 and arrangement of the trees. But the old craft 

 is dying for want of encouragement, and we must 

 be quick if we would secure its secrets. 



Green, white, and brown are June colours 

 at Achibal, for the garden itself has few flowers, 

 though some of the old orchard trees have been 

 spared ; and in autumn the quince trees weave 

 a spell of their own when the gnarled boughs 

 droop over the water with their burden of pale 

 yellow balls. To plant fruit trees close up to 

 the edges of the reservoirs was a favourite 

 custom. And a very pretty one it was. Nothing 

 was more tiresome in the English garden of the 

 last century than the sham gentility which spoke 

 of " ornamental trees " as if they must be 

 necessarily useless ones, and banished the apple, 

 plum, and pear trees to the distant kitchen garden 

 regions. Well, that is past now, and thanks 

 chiefly to Japan, the orchard is again in favour. 

 But we might have been reminded of its beauties 



