The sample from which our drawing has been made, is 

 the first produce of a plant recently received from China by 

 Sir Abraham Hume, who had the goodness to send it 

 from Wormleybnry. It does not seem to be precisely 

 either of the two double varieties, known in our gardens by 

 the denominations of var. rosea fl. pi, and var. bankslajl. 

 pi. Yet Mr. Sabine, who has attended very particularly to 

 the variation of all the species of Peony, appears to be con- 

 vinced that its difference from banksia consists merely in 

 its being a weaker specimen. 



This beautiful and most desirable shrub is native of 

 China, and was obtained, like the greater proportion of 

 the more valuable ornaments of our gardens, by the care 

 of Sir Joseph Banks, who had sent out proper instructions, 

 for the purpose. The first living plant reached England 

 in 1794; several had been previously received, but none 

 had survived the passage. In China, where the florist is 

 said to have a list of two hundred and forty varieties, the 

 plants, we are told, sometimes attain the height of from 

 eight to ten feet. To have it in perfection in our climate, 

 it should be planted in the border of the conservatory ; but 

 it will also do well in the open ground, if protected during 

 the period of its bloom by a glass case. 



Stent round, branching, about an inch in diameter, 

 smooth. Young branches leafy, others leafless. Leaves 

 spreading, biternately or bipinnately divided, segments oval 

 or oblong, lower ones entire, uppermost threelobed, of a 

 deep green at the upper side and smooth, at the under glau- 

 cous and furred with small scattered hairs. Flowers ter- 

 minal, large, solitary, sweet-scented : floral leaves two by 

 way of involucre immediately under the flower, 2-3-parted, 

 with oblong and generally reflectent lobes. Calyx of five 

 leaflets. Petals from five to ten or sometimes many more, 

 large, orbicular often indented at the border. 



It does not yet appear to be decided whether (/3), the 

 plant with large white semi-double flowers, known by the 

 title of papaveracea, is specifically distinct from («) or not. 

 We shall subjoin the translation of the distinctive charac- 

 teristics of each as given by M. Decandolle, by whom the 

 two are recorded provisionally, as mutual varieties. 



In (a) the fleshy cup in which the bases of the ger- 

 mens are contained, is indented at the top: the gerniens 



