RANUNCULACEAE 53 
Paeonies, only wants rich soil and neglect. Witt- 
maniana, however, differs from the others in sometimes 
dying off imexplicably. Whitleyt major is the loveliest 
herbaceous plant I know, as Moutan is the finest—well, 
shrub, one must call it. Of course I mean the single Whit- 
leyi; the double is beautiful, but of no account in the 
rock-garden. The single Whitleyi has flowers like a 
huge water-lily of pure white silk, and the heart of it is a 
tassel of fine gold. No one ever imagined a lovelier thine. 
As for the wild red Paeonies, I do not think very many 
of them are worth troubling about. ‘There are so many 
single hybrids now; I have just established, in their 
second year, a big batch of single herbaceous Paeonies 
from Japan, and I expect to see marvels this year. The 
species, lobata, Russi, peregrina, officinalis corallina (who 
lives on the Steep Holmes Islet in the Severn Sea, 
among the rocks, but basely suspected by some of being 
an alien) tend to be leafy in growth, small in flower, and 
with a tiresome shade of lilac or magenta in their reds. 
You have to be careful about this always in buying 
Paeonies. Only buy by sight, if possible. Far different 
is it with the white species. ‘The Japanese obovata, 
whose pearl-white goblets I remember above Shoji, is a 
jewel quite outside any condemnation; as are albiflora 
and edulis and the precious /modi; while there is even 
a certain rare variety of the magenta lobata called ‘Sun- 
beam,’ which has flowers of a splendid luminous scarlet. 
As for the Yellow Tree-Paeony—Paeonia lutea—well, 
I am waiting till that drops a little in price. Besides, 
though thrillingly exciting, I don’t gather that lutea 
compares in beauty with Moutan or albiflora. Its flower 
seems rather small for the leaf, and recalls to me a bloom 
of Nuphar advena stuck fraudulently on a Paeony-plant. 
As for culture, all the species are alike: give them deep 
soil, a more or less shady place, and let them alone. 
