250 Mr. Anderson's Monograph of the Genus Paonia. 



have described Paeonies with precision after Linne, and their de- 

 scriptions are excellent as far as they go; but theaccession of new 

 species lately discovered, and as yet but imperfectly described^ to- 

 gether with the necessity of a thorough revision of those that were 

 formerly known, rendered some attempt like the present requi- 

 site. If it shall be found to possess any merit, it is not to me, 

 but to my much esteemed friend Joseph Sabine, Esq. F. R.S., &c. 

 that it is to be ascribed : that gentleman for several years has 

 collected with indefatigable pains all the Paeonies he could dis- 

 cover both from public and private gardens. Having at length 

 assembled upwards of seventy plants under different names in his 

 garden at North Mimms, he began, by comparing them together, 

 to produce order out of confusion. It was at his particular invi- 

 tation that I first attempted to describe them ; and it has been 

 by the assistance of his information that I have been enabled to 

 proceed in the undertaking. I have, therefore, to avoid the neces- 

 sity for reiterated acknowledgements, taken the liberty of employ- 

 ing the plural number, as including him, in the composition of 

 the following account. 



I do not enter into any examination of the general character, 

 further than to repeat what has been hinted by others; that the 

 genus properly belongs to Polyandria Trigynia, not only because 

 the species more generally exhibit three pistilla than any other 

 number, but also because this is its most natural position: it 

 should stand, in my opinion, between Aconitum and liomalium in 

 the factitious arrangement. The germina iomentosa, will now be 

 expunged from the natural character, there being two species 

 with smooth germens. 



The descriptions are made out from an actual examination of 

 each living plant ; and it affords no small satisfaction to say, that 

 very few if any of the plants taken notice of up to the present 

 time remain unaccounted for: a few, indeed, which appear to be 



questionable. 



