NAT. ORDER 



Jfanunadaceee. 



PiEONIA EDULIS REEVESIANA. TREE PEONY. 



Class XIIF. PoLYANDRiA. Older II. Digynia. 



Gen. Char. Caly.t, of five sepals, leafy, persisting. Corolla, of five 

 or of many petals, without claws. Stamens, below the gernien. 

 Style, none. Stigmas, from three to five. Capsules, three or 

 five. 



Spp,. Char. Boots, tliick, fleshy. Stems, many. Leaves, lanceolate. 



The 7-oot is bulbous, fleshy, smooth, of a light yellow color, and 

 near the base sends oflT a numerous quantity of small succulent 

 fibres ; the stem is upright, round, smooth, of a pale reddish-green 

 color, and rises from two to four feet in height ; the^oirtrsare large, 

 of a deep blood-red, sometimes tinged with purple, and stand singly 

 upon long footstalks ; carpels folicular, from two to five, large, many- 

 seeded, and terminated with thick bilamellate stigmas ; seeds rather 

 globose and shining. 



Xo plant, mentioned by Kcmpfer and Thunberg, in their Floras 

 of China and Japan, excited greater interest among European bot- 

 anists, than did the Tree Peony, or Moutan of the Chinese. The 

 officers to the East India Company, whether residents at, or visitors 

 of Canton, were frequently commissioned to enquire for and obtain 

 tliis plant. Several single plants were received from time to lime, 

 between the years 1785 and 1790, which went to Kcw. The.se, 

 however, being treated as stove plants, uniformly failed : but a fresh 

 supply of plants was purchased at Canton, and taken to England 

 by Mr. Main in 1794, consigned to Sir Josepii Banks and others. 



Vol. iii.— 87. 



