TULIPS 35 



In the midst of long accounts of wars and 

 skirmishes we find the Emperor hurrying back 

 to Kabul to see how his Garden of Felicity had 

 prospered. Wherever he went, he paused to note 

 the flowers, birds, and animals that were new to 

 him. Marching through the mountains of Ghur- 

 bend in Afghanistan Babar observes that : " The 

 ground is richly diversified by various kinds of 

 tulips. I once directed them to be counted, and 

 they brought in thirty-two or thirty-three different 

 sorts of tulips. There is one species which has 

 a scent in some degree like a rose, and which 

 I termed laleh-gul-bui, (the rose-scented tulip). 

 This species is found only in the Sheikh's Plain, 

 in a small spot of ground, and nowhere else. In 

 the skirts of the same hills, below Perwan, is 

 produced the Hundred - leaved tulip, which is 

 likewise found only in one narrow spot of ground, 

 as we emerge from the straits of Ghurbend." 

 This last flower, which Babar mistook for a tulip, 

 is really the double red poppy. 



The Emperor gives a long list of many beautiful 

 gardens surrounding Samarkand at the time of 

 his first visit to that city. The Perfect Garden, 

 the Heart - delighting, and the Garden of the 

 Plain are among those he mentions as adorned 



