MYTHOLOGY, AND HISTORY OP THE PEONY 



is the main thing that has come down to us. 

 There is an account of one famous peony, P. 

 daurica (brought from Siberia via England), 

 which was introduced about 1810 as a rare plant 

 at Malmaison for the Empress Josephine.^ 



France has given the world the most numer- 

 ous and famous growers and hybridisers of the 

 peony, whose efforts during the past century 

 produced many of the finest varieties we see in 

 the best collections at the present time. The work 

 of improving the peony was begun earlier in 

 France than in England and soon became of 

 great interest to royal and aristocratic connois- 

 seurs. Among the varieties we have to-day were 

 some originated between 1830 and 1848 in the 

 garden of King Louis Philippe at Neuilly under 

 the care of his gardener, M. Jacques. 



Before this, probably the first man in Europe 

 to raise peonies from seeds and to offer the best 

 of these as named sorts was M. Lemon of the 

 Porte St. Denis, Paris. As far back as 1824 



« For a full account of this peony see Description 

 des Plantes Rares Cultivees a Malmaison et Navarre. 

 A. Bonpland, Paris, 1813. This species is also known 

 as P. corallina, var. triternata. 

 4 49 



