MYTHOLOGY, AND HISTORY OF THE PEONY 



Directory of Philip Miller, Keeper of the Chel- 

 sea Botanic Garden of the Worshipful Company 

 of Apothecaries, which work first appeared in 

 1731, seven kinds of peonies are set out as all the 

 sorts the author had observed in English gardens. 

 The seven are two varieties of corallina (both 

 single), officinalis (single, large double and small 

 double), a double white and Lusitanica or Por- 

 tugal peony. Of the last variety Miller says: 

 " The Flowers of this kind are single, but do 

 smell very sweet which renders it worthy of a 

 Place in every good Garden." It is difficult to 

 identify this variety with certainty at the present 

 time although it is probably Broteri. 



During the latter half of the Eighteenth Cen- 

 tury several additional kinds, including tenuifolia, 

 peregrina and anomala, were cultivated in 

 England. 



In the early part of the Nineteenth Century 

 some varieties of albiflora were imported from 

 China that are still offered by growers. Among 

 these are Fragrans (Sir Joseph Banks, 1805), 

 Whitleyi (Whitley, 1808)— which the importer 

 had been led to believe was a yellow tree peony — 

 and Humei (Anderson, 1810). Fragrans was 



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