Sentence:  the <WSD>malis</WSD> who tended the gardens, no less than the owners themselves, vied to outdo each other in the fancifulness of their plantings, creating here a little patch of topiary and there an avenue of trees, trimmed in the French fashion […]. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (gardener) A member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; "hence", any native gardener. (from 18th c.)