THE BOOK OF THE PEONY 



of Pliny and Dioscorides. These two authors 

 were largely drawn on by Apuleius, who lived 

 about 150 A.D. His Herbarius, written in Latin, 

 was later translated into Anglo-Saxon, and must 

 have been one of the horticultural " best sellers " 

 of the day, as there are no less than four MSS. 

 extant. 



Alexander Necham, bom in 1157, was an early 

 English writer on gardening. After some years 

 spent as a student and professor in Paris, he be- 

 came the abbot of the Augustine monks at Ciren- 

 cester. In those days monasteries had gardens 

 of considerable size and the monks *' went in heav- 

 ily " for raising herbs, vegetables and flowers. In 

 Necham's De Naturis Rerum, he gives a descrip- 

 tion of what a " noble garden " should contain. 

 " The garden," he vn'ites, " should be adorned with 

 roses and lillies, turnsole, violets and mandrake; 

 there you should have . . . fennel, coriander 

 . . . and peonies." It would seem that all these 

 plants were cultivated in typical gardens of the 

 time. The peony of this date was in all proba- 

 bility P. officinalis. 



In the Fourteenth Century peonies were used 

 for seasoning. In Langland's Vision of Piers 



40 



