An Indian garden, a great series of outdoor rooms, is, on the other hand, a beautiful and sensible place in which to wander after dark as well as by day. The long stone paths, raised above the level of the soil and fringed by fragrant flowering shrubs, shine clear in the starlight. The raised chabutras, or pavilions, where the main paths cross have each their tank or fountain basin, and can be easily flooded with water and cooled; the little baradaris at the angles of the walls are open on every side to the evening breeze, and the flowers themselves in an Indian garden are chosen to look their best and smell their sweetest under the soft radiance of the moon.
An evening garden, naturally, means a white garden, all other flowers being lost in the dusk of their leaves. So, many of the favourite Hindu flowers are white, like the champaka and double jasmine buds used for wreaths. Among others are white poppies, tuberose, datura, white petunia, stephanotis, magnolias, and gardenias of various kinds as well as the night opening flowers, the white scented cactus (Cereus grandiflora), the moon-creeper convolvulus called soma-vel (Calonyction speciosum), which when in bloom makes such a magical effect, and the white lotus beloved of Hindu poets. 'Every one has his friend and confidant; the sun which opens the pink lotus, closes the petals of the white,' is one of their sayings; and Hindu heroes and heroines declare their love for each other as 'like that of the sun and the day lotus, or the moon and the white lotus flowers.'
