PEONY. 71 



Peony is given as a representative of bashful 

 shame. 



Antiquity celebrates the virtues of this plant, 

 and places it amongst the wonders of the vegetable 

 creation. Fable gives us its origin, iEsculapius its 

 properties, and superstition ranks it amongst mira- 

 culous plants, assuring us that demons will fly the 

 spot where it is planted, and that even a small piece 

 of the root worn round the neck is sufficient to pro- 

 tect the wearer from all kinds of enchantment. 



It owes its name to Paeon, a famous physician of 

 antiquity, who is said to have cured the wounds 

 which the gods received during the Trojan war, 

 with the aid of this plant ; and from him skilful 

 physicians are sometimes called Pceoniij and, on the 

 same account, those herbs which are serviceable in 

 medicine, PcBonicE herbcB. 



The ancient writers, who transformed simple facts 

 into fabulous histories, for the purpose of deifying 

 favourite mortals, relate that Paeon, who was a pupil 

 of the great JEsculapius, first received the Peony 

 on Mount Olympus, from the hands of the mother 

 of Apollo, with which he cured Pluto of a wound 

 he had received from Hercules ; but this cure cre- 

 ated so much jealousy in the breast of ^sculapius, 

 that he secretly caused the death of Paeon. Pluto, 

 however, retaining a grateful sense of his service, 

 changed him into this flower, which ever after bore 



