262 MOONLIGHT GARDENS 



moonlight one, yet there was one month in the 

 year, Sawan (the middle rains), when the palace 

 ladies went down to see how their gardens fared 

 by day. There are few prettier places than an 

 Indian " rains " garden, when the wonderful 

 flowering trees and creepers are in perfection. 

 The herbaceous flowers are limited, but those 

 that do grow, grow so riotously that they quite 

 make up for their lack of variety. One would 

 hardly recognise a zinnia in an English border, 

 after the great beds of coral, red and orange 

 blooms with their large flower heads and branch- 

 ing stalks ; each colour massed separately, in 

 gorgeous parterres filled with zinnias alone. 

 Tall cannas and balsams make another blaze of 

 colour, marigolds and cosmos flourish, amaranth, 

 orchids, and the orchid -like achimenes are out, 

 the ponds are filled with lotus, and the wet garden 

 glows and glistens where the light shines through 

 the dark, damp masses of translucent coloured 

 leaves, bushes of coleus, and tufts of caladiums, 

 little pots of which look so dull in English green- 

 houses that one woxild never guess their splendour 

 in the rains. 



This month of Sawan — July — is the month of 

 the swings. " It is both pleasant and profitable 



