1208 



P^ONIA* hybrida. 



Hybrid PcBony. 



POLYANDRIA TRI-PENTAGYNIA 



Nat. Ord. RANUNCULACEiE. 



PjEONIA. — Supr^, vol. 1. fol. 42. 



P. hybrida; herbacea, folliculis recurvatis pubescentibus, foliis multipar- 

 titis : laciniis linearibus acuminatis glabris, flore cernuo foliis longiore. 



P. hybrida. Pall. fl. ross. 1. p. 94. t. 86. Willd. sp. pi. 2. 1223. Ait. 

 Kew. ed. 2. 3. 316. Smith in Rees, in loco, no. 10. Decand. syst. 

 1. 393 ; prodr. 1. 66. Bieh.fi. taur. cauc. 2. U. et 3. 367. 



This is the most beautiful of the cut-leaved Paeonies, 

 from all which it differs strikingly in the deeper red of its 

 flowers. At the time of publishing the Monograph of 

 PsEonia in the Transactions of the Linnaan Society, no other 

 knowledge was possessed of this than was to be gathered 

 from the figure and account given of it by Pallas in his 

 Flora Rossica; and from these imperfect materials it was 

 referred to P. tenuifolia, as a mere variety. 



r 



Within a few years roots have been obtained by the 

 Horticultural Society from several quarters, and the study 

 of them in a growing state has now made it evident that 

 it is a genuine species. At least, we have Mr. Sabme's 



named 



Homer records as having cured Pluto with this herb, when he was wounded 

 by Hercules. We presume its virtues are altogether reserved tor sucn 

 august occasions, they having never been made manifest on any other, as 

 far as we know. The t«*«<« of Dioscorides evidently appears, by his very 

 particular description, to be our plant. What he distinguishes by the 

 gratuitous appellation of male and female, are now acknowledged to be two 

 species, though Linnaus considers them as varieties of one, by the name ot 

 P. officinalis. — Smith in Rees' Cycl. 



, f 



