These gardens are at times of considerable size, the one in my Ispahan house being a regular parallelogram, some fifteen yards by twenty. The place had nothing in it but three or four fine apricot trees. I turned it over to a Persian gardener from the town, who commenced operations by making a raised path six feet wide, lowering the garden itself to get the earth; this path was in the form of a cross, and divided the large plot into four equal beds. These were mapped out into ornamental flower-beds, and sown with various seeds; each bed, containing a different kind, was carefully sprinkled with strong manure, and then the whole was flooded with water from the town watercourse. Each bed communicated with the other by a narrow trench; some six inches of water was let on to the bed, filling it to the top of the little bank of mould surrounding it; then the opening was closed, and the water allowed to proceed to the next bed. In this way each bed got thoroughly wetted once or twice a week. The seeds were generally soaked for some days before sowing, often being tied up in a damp rag till they germinated; and, as a rule, seeds sown dry, save very minute ones, did not germinate. The flowers sown were of the commonest description. They were scattered very thickly, and never thinned. Convolvulus (Lulufer, or Neelufer), Marvel of Peru (Lalah basi), aster, zinnia of a uniform brick red, wallflower (or Gul-i-Kher, lit. asses’ flower), portulacca (Gul-i-naz-nazi, flower of coquetry), a kind of common cockscomb (Zūlf-i-aroos, bride’s locks), the dahlia and _Lilium candidum_ (Gul-i-Mariam, Mary’s flower)—these two latter were looked on as rare flowers, and of great price—the larkspur and the sweet-William, the China rose (or Gul-i-Resht, flower of Resht), the nastorange, a lovely whitish, orange-scented, single climbing rose, the moss-rose (or Gul-i-Soorkh), of which the rose-water and attar of commerce is made, blooming only every other year, and the single orange and yellow rose, with the narcissus, pink, and the wild Lallah or tulip, formed the principal garden ornaments; while a useful background and edging was made of the Jarroo or broom-plant. This sows itself, and when cut in autumn and allowed to dry, it makes the usual carpet-broom of Shiraz and Ispahan.