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The peony belongs to the family Ranunculaceae, which embraces 

 some twenty-four genera of cultivated plants, including the Butter- 

 cups, Clematises, Columbines, Larkspurs, Anemones, Hepaticas, 

 etc. When we consider systematically the kinds of herbaceous 

 perennials in our gardens, we realize how much we owe to this 

 family. 



PcBonia is distinguished from Clematis by having imbricated 

 sepals, and from Adonis, Thalictrum, Anemone, Hepatica, Syndes- 

 nion, Trautvetteria and Ranunculus by having carpels containing 

 several or many ovules instead of being one-ovuled, with indehis- 

 cent akenes. Pceonia is distinguished from all the remaining genera 

 in the family by having large and showy petals ; many of the others, 

 such as Caltha and Hepatica, lack petals entirely, their place being 

 taken by more or less showy sepals. The peony also differs from 

 most of the other members of its family by having a concave rather 

 than a convex receptacle, thus presenting a kind of cup, the base 

 of which supports the carpels; the calyx, corolla, and stamens being 

 inserted on its sides. The flowers are hermaphrodite and regular. 

 We find in PcFonia alhiftora that the peduncle is dilated above into 

 a fairly deep receptacle cup, and bears on its rim a calyx often 

 formed of five free dissimilar sepals imbricated in the bud. The 

 petals, equally free and imbricated in the bud, have a short claw, 

 and are often equal in number to the sepals, and alternate with 

 them. The stamens are very numerous, inserted along a spiral 

 of many turns, very close to one another. The anthers, two-celled 

 and introrse, are narrow and elongated ; they dehisce by two longi- 

 tudinal clefts. There is a glandular disk which lines the concavity 

 of the receptacle and projects more or less from it. In alhiHora it 

 is only a small unequally crenulate ledge, while in other species, 

 such as P. moutan, this disk rises up into a colored sack, which 

 looks as if formed by a union of appendicular organs, and entirely 

 'surrounds the ovaries, only giving passage to the styles by th'^ 

 narrow aperture at its summit. 



The gynaeceum consists of a variable number of free carpels, 

 each composed of a unilocular ovary, tapering above into a style; 

 the inner surface of this is traversed by a longitudinal groove, 

 with stigmatic papillae. In the inner angle of the ovary is the 

 vertical placenta, supporting two rows of nearly horizontal anatro- 

 pous ovules, placed back to back. These ovules have two coats, 

 the outer one forming at first a sort of hood with a large opening 

 externally. The short, thick, conical funicle swells early to begin 



