Mr. Anderson's Monograph of the Genus Paonia. 253 



r ' liqua, supra glabra, saturate viridia, veiiis atropurpureia : subtus cxsio-glauca, pU 

 lobiuscula. Foljoliim intermedium saepius iiiciso-lobatum, subinde obtuse trifidum ; 

 lateralia integriora, minora, subsessilia. Braclece foliaoecE calyci approxiinatse. Ca- 

 tycis fuUola numeri inccrti, glabra, mucronata. Pelala 8 — 13 palmaria, cxpansa, 

 obcordata, croso-crenata. Me7iihrana perigvna tenuis, glabra, rubicunda, primum 

 ovata, apice stigmata effuudens, dein germinibus tumentibus rupta. Germina circi- 

 ter 5 parum tomeiitosa, dcnium patentia. Stigmata lineari-compressa, returvata, 

 purpurea. Floret ad iinem Maii. 



A minute account of this species is given in the Mimoircs des 

 Chinois by the Missionaries, Paris 1778: from whom we learn 

 that it is the pride and glory of the Chinese, who have cultivated 

 it by their own accounts for upwards of 1400 3'ears ; and its vari- 

 eties, from two to three hundred in number, are cherished with 

 no less consideration than the Dutch florists do their tulips; and 

 that it is a theme for their poets and painters, and prized even 

 by their emperors, not only on account of the beauty but of the 

 sweet perfume of its flowers. The colour of these is represented 

 to consist of different shades of purple, crimson, violet, rose, yel- 

 low, white, black! and blue. Their tradition of its first origin is 

 of its being discovered by a traveller on the mountains of Ho-nan : 

 no notice is taken of its being now found there, or any where else 

 in a state of nature; and Loureiro and Thunberg only describe 

 it as being every where cultivated in the gardens of Japan, and 

 Cochinchina. .^ 



The Chinese take credit for rendering it a shrub by means of 

 their superior art in gardenings for which they plume themselves 

 greatly. It is possible that they might mistake P. albiflora, which 

 is found in China, for the original state of this plant. At this we 

 need not wonder, when two European botanists mistook it for 

 P. officinalis. We cannot for a moment doubt of the shrubby, 

 stem being natural, although it bears a strict analogy to the sub-. 



terraneous 



