50 RANUNCULACEAE. 
PAEONIA. Paeony. 
(Family Ranunculaceae). 
Small unsymmetrically 
branched shrubs (most species 
herbaceous). Twigs terete, stout: 
pith large, round, continuous. 
Buds moderate, the upper much 
larger, solitary, sessile, ovoid or 
rather oblong, with about half-a- 
dozen - pointed scales, end-bud 
lacking. Leaf-scars alternate, 
somewhat raised, large, triangu- 
lar or half-round: bundle-traces 
about 7 in a U-shaped series and 
small with a larger one central in 
the scar: stipule-scars lacking. 
The tree paeony has shared in 
the popular approval that paeonies 
have received of late years, and 
like the herbaceous species it is 
now grown in a large variety of 
forms which differ greatly in their 
flowers. 
Paeonia differs from other Ranunculaceae in having the 
septa between the ends of the cells that forms its ducts per- 
forated by a series of transverse slits (scalariform perfora- 
tions), the cross-wall disappearing entirely in other genera. 
Its winter-characters are figured by Schneider, p. 119, f. 121. 
Buds more or less rosy: glabrous. (Tree paeony). 
P. suffruticosa. 
