Mr. Anderson's Monograph of the Genus Paonia. 26? 



of flowering as the preceding ; germens generally three, upright at 

 first and finally diverging. 



Notwithstanding the partial pubescence observable on this and 

 the preceding, we are in no kind of doubt in considering them 

 mere varieties of the first-described and of the double-flowered 

 varieties enumerated below. 



i. r«/ira ; floribus plenissimisatro-purpureis. Double red Paeony. 



P. femina polyanthus. Lohel Ic. 684. 



]'. polyanthos. Camerarius Hort. p. 114. 



P. flore pleno rubro. Joh. Bauli. v. jii. p. 493. 



P. foemina flore pleno rubro majore. C. B. Pinai; p. 324. Mo- 



rison Plant. Hist. v. ii. p. 455. t. 13. 

 P. foemina multiplex. Ger. Em. p. 981. Tahernam. Ic. p. 784. 

 P. foemina vulgaris flore pleno rubro. Park. Par. p. 342 & 343. 



P. officinalis rubra. Double red Paeony. Sabine in Hort. Trans. 

 V. i\. p. 274. 



To this variety we may apply the words of Besler ; " vulgatis- 

 sima est omnium Peeoniarum ;" and we may add without exag- 

 geration, the most splendid of all flowers. Even the fine double 

 Pseonies from China, rich and magnificent as they are, cannot be 

 compared for brilliance with this common inhabitant of almost 

 every cottager's garden in England. Nothing but its extreme 

 vulgarity and the extraordinary foecundity of its roots could have 

 brought this beautiful plant into the neglect it has suffered for a 

 century past. 



The first account given of it is in the edition of Lobel's Icones, 

 1581. Camerarius writes, in 1588, " id est flore pleno quae ante 

 paucos annos apud nos est coepta coli ;" from which we may 

 conclude that it was at that time a recent discovery. The gar- 



2 M 2 dens 



