CROWFOOT TRIBE 25 



of several which are known in America as the Rattlesnake-Horh. The Bane- 

 berry is not attractive enough to find a frequent place in the g;u'den. 



15. Peony {Pceoaia). 



Entire-leaved Peony {F. coraUina). — Leaves twice-ternate, glabrous, 

 their segments ovate, entire. Plant perennial. This plant ought not to be 

 considered a wild flower, for it grows but in two places in this country, and 

 was probably planted in both. The rock of Steep Holmes, an island in the 

 Severn, has long been noted as one of its habitats. Sir William Hooker 

 records Blaize Castle, near Bristol, as another, but it is not found there now. 

 Gerarde says that in his days it grew near Oravesend ; but it is impossible 

 to determine Avhether the plant was a native of this country and has become 

 eradicated from our wild flora, as some plants appear to have been, or whether 

 it was introduced from gardens. The Rev. W. Lisle Bowles has some 

 beautiful lines on this lonely Peony : — 



' ' This, abrupt and high. 

 And desolate, and cold, and bleak, uplift.s 

 Its barren brow ! Barren, but on its steep 

 One native flower is seen, the peony, 

 One flower, which smiles in sunshine and in storm, 

 There still companiouless, but yet not sad ; 

 8he has no sister of" the summer field, 

 None to rejoice with her when spring returns ; 

 None, that in synijiathy may bend its liead, 

 AVhen evening winds blow hollow o'er the rock 

 In autumn's gloom ! So Virtue, a fair flower, 

 Blooms on the rock of Care, and, though unseen, 

 bo smiles in cold seclusion, while remote 

 From the world's flaunting fellowship, it wears, 

 Like hermit Piety, one smile of peace, 

 In sickness and in health, in joy or tears. 

 In summer days or cold adversity ; 

 And still it feels heaven's breath reviving steal 

 On its lone breast, feels the warm blessedness 

 Of heaven's own light about it, though its leaves 

 Are wet with evening tears." 



The seeds of this plant are said to be ground and used in tea by the 

 Daurians and Mongols, who also boil the roots in broth; but it is probable 

 that the more slender species, Fceonia edulis, is that which they thus use. 

 Our wild Peony has red, pale pink, or white flowers, which appear in June 

 and July. It differs from the common magnificent garden species, Pieonia 

 oj/icinalis, in its uncut leaves ; those of the garden Peony being divided into 

 lobes : the blossom is also single. The Peonies introduced from other lands 

 are very ornamental, and some have much excited the attention of florists. 

 The double red, which was brought from Switzerland to Antwerp at the end 

 of the sixteenth century, sold for twelve crowns a plant ; and we have onl\' 

 to look back a few years to the time when the Moutan-tree Peony was too 

 expensive a flower for any but the rich man's garden. This is now compara- 

 tively a common plant, and is a truly beautiful species. Fortune, in his 

 "Wanderings in China," describes his anxiety to procure some new varieties 

 of this kind. Those already in England were either rose-coloured or white ; 

 and it was asserted by the Chinese near Shanghai, that \arieties of the Peony 



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