208 GLENN YS HANDBOOK 



0. ohovatum, flowers red and yellow. 0. retusum, flowers 

 orange yellow, 



P.EONIA. Peony. [Ptanunculacea9.] Very showy 

 hardy perennials of large growth. The shrubby kinds, 

 known as Tree Peonies, are now called Moutan. (See 

 MouTAN.) They are all very beautiful, the colours comprising 

 white, blush, pink, scarlet, rose, crimson, and in some cases 

 white delicately tinted with rose. The single-flowered Peonies 

 are like large-flowered Poppies. They grow in rich loamy- 

 soil, and are propagated readily bv division. 



PALMA CHRISTI. See PaciNus. 



PANCRATIUM. [Amaryllidacese.] A consiflerable 

 genus of bulbous plants, the majority of which require a 

 stove. They have the habit of Amaryllis and Ciinum, and 

 require the same management throughout, except as to tem- 

 perature. Compost, three-parts turfy loam, one part turfy 

 peat, and one part rotted cowdung. They should be potted 

 with the bulb half covered with the soil, and should be placed 

 in the stove or a warm greenhouse, where they want no other 

 care than a little water until they flower, and after that 

 none till they begin to grow again for the next season. The 

 hardy ones should be planted on a south border in a dry 

 warm soil. Propagated by offsets or by seeds. 



PANSY. See also Viola. 



PAPAVER. Poppy. [P^P^veracese.] A genus of hardy 

 plants, containing many weedy and some showy species : it 

 comprises perennials, biennials, and annuals. Of the latter 

 the double-flowered varieties, sometimes known as Carnation 

 and Picotee Poppies, are the most worthy of cultivation, and 

 these are really gay as well as stately plants ; besides which, 

 if colours have any charm in a garden, it is almost impossible 

 to enumerate the different tints that a pincli of good seed 

 will produce. These annual kinds will oveiTun a garden if 

 the pods of seed are not removed before ripening. For 

 mixed or shrubbeiy borders this may be no objection, as 

 plants can be left where there is space for them, and the rest 

 hoed up ; but in the more neatly-kept parts of a garden this 

 scattering of the seed should be prevented, and a supply of 

 plants raised by special sowing. The seeds may be sown in 

 March, and again in April, in patches where they are to 



