Mr. Anderson's Monograph of the Genus Fceonia. 2Gj 



most of the liilly regions in the south of Europe. Also on Cau- 

 casus and ill Georgia (Pallas). Quer in his Flora Espanola stalea 

 that it is frequent in Spain, particularly on the mountains of 

 Avila. 



'J'he history of the present species may boast of a greater anti- 

 quity than that of most plants. There can be no doubt of its 

 being the Puonia of Pliny, to which such great medical virtues 

 were attached. . 



Were we to trust to the d()ul)le varieties, wliich are by much 

 the most common in this country, we should conclude that this 

 species was altogether free from pubescence; but on examining 

 the single-flowered sorts, we find two out of three that have come 

 under our observation slightly villous; so little reliance is to be 

 placed on that property, lletzius is the only writer who has fully 

 described this species, and his description is, in our opinion, with- 

 out a fault. lie has laboured perhaps over-much in defining the 

 divisions of the leaf, which are so apt to vary, from soil and situa- 

 tion, as to baffle any such refinement of description. 'I'here arc 

 two specimens in the Clitforlian herbarium named anomala, which 

 we take to be those of a variety of this species with narrower 

 leaves than any we have seen elsewhere; they are certainly not 

 specimens of anomala, for they have woolly germens, a decided 

 mark of distinction between these two species. 



We have been obliged to reject many synonyms, to prevent 

 swelling the list to an unreasonable length. All the old hcrbals 

 have noticed, if not figured, the " female peiony." We have in- 

 spected six distinct varieties. 



a. Sahini; floribus atro-purpureis, foliis omnino glabris. 



A 'few years ago no person knew that a plant of the single- 

 flowered P. officinalis existed in this country. Mr. Sabine had the 

 good fortune to discover one in the corner of an old garden at 



VOL. XII. 2 Ri Great 



