NATURAL ORDER RANUNCULACEZ. 
Tribe—PEONIE. 
Prate ITI.—Peonia peregrina. De Candolle syst. & fi. fr. 
Grenier and Godron. Woods. 
GeENeERIC.—Flowers regular. ollicles 2 to 5, many-seeded, bursting 
inwards. Petals 5 or more. 
Sepals 5, persistant, unequal. 
Speciric.—Carpels covered with whitish down, upright and separated 
when ripe. 
Anthers not half the length of the filament. Petals 5 to 10, obovate, 
obtuse. Leaves biternate and ternate, the middle lobe of 3 or 5 de- 
current segments. The backs of the leaves whitish grey, with downy 
pubescence. 
EXPLANATION OF Puate.—This drawing of Pceonia peregrina must 
be taken as representing a small flower, and, of course, but a few of the 
uppermost leaves. The diameter of many blossoms was from 5 to 6 
inches. Fig. 1 represents an immature fruit. Fig. 2 is of a stamen ; 
_ this fig. and fig. 1 are of the natural size. 
Remarxs.—As yet no other species of Peony has been discovered at 
Mentone ; and if there were, I think that the whitish backs of the 
leaves would sufficiently distinguish this. Though very rare as an 
European plant, it abounds on the summits of the more lofty moun- 
tains, at a height of from 3,250 to 4,000 feet. The localities cited by 
Grenier- and Godron, in their “Flore de France,” as habitats are as 
follows :—Serane, at the foot of the St. Loup peak, the wood of 
Valéne, near Montpellier ; a wood at Die ; Cévennes ; Mende; Grasse ; 
Rousillon, at Abeillas, near Bagnols-sur-Mer; Perpignan. It would 
be very interesting to know the respective heights of the places 
enumerated, but I have no means of gaining the information. We 
see a good example in the present species of the fact that it is not 
in the garden only that plants are able to produce strange and variable 
forms ; the number and shape of the petals being so irregular, that it 
is rare to find any two flowers alike. The specimens figured were 
gathered for me on the Mulaciers mountain, where they were blossoming 
in great profusion on the 7th of May. 
