NAT. ORDER. MDLTISILaUiE. 35 



Pceonia inllosa. Villous Pseonia. This species varies consider- 

 able ia its height, I'ising from two to six feet, according to the climate 

 and the richness of the soil ; the carpels are densely tomentose, 

 erect, I)ut somewhat incurved at the apex ; leaves villous, pubescent 

 and whitish-glaucious beneath — lower ones somewhat triternate — 

 upper ones ternate ; leaflets pinnatified ; segments oblong-lanceolate, 

 elongated, incurved at the apex. Native of France. 



Medical Properties and Uses. This plant has long been con- 

 sidered as a powerful medicine, and until the late revision of the Phar- 

 macopceia by the London College, it had a place in the catalogue of 

 the Materia Medica, in which the two common varieties of this plant 

 are indiscriminately directed for use, and improperly distinguished into 

 male and female Peony. The roots, flowers, and seeds, have been 

 esteemed in the character of an anodyne and corroborant, especially 

 the roots, which have been extensively used in the treatment of epi- 

 lepsy ; for this purpose the ancients' method was to cut the roots into 

 tliin slices, which were attached to a string and suspended about the 

 neck as an amulet ; if this failed of success the patient was to have 

 recourse to the internal use of the root, which was given in the form 

 of powder, and in the quantity of a drachm two or three times a day, 

 by which we are informed both infants and adults were cured of this 

 disease. By some it is recommended that the expressed juice should 

 be given in wine, and sweetened with sugar, as the most effectual way 

 of administering this plant. The seeds have been considered by some 

 authors to possess emetic and purgative properties, and by others anti- 

 spasmodic. They may be given in the same dose as the dried root, 

 but are very little used hi modern practice. The roots and seeds of 

 Peony have, when fresh, a faint, unpleasant smell, somewhat of the 

 narcotic kind, and a mucilaginous sub-acrid taste, with a slight degree 

 of bitterness and astringency. In drying they lose their smell, and 

 part of their taste. Extracts made from them by water are almost in- 

 sipid .IS well as inodorous, but extracts made by rectified spirit are 

 bittei md considerably astringent. 



