THE BOOK OF THE PEONY 



(about the time when hybrid perpetual roses 

 began to be popular), he raised a lot of seedlings 

 of P. officinalis from which eame P. anemoniflora 

 alba and P. grandiflora nivea plena. The last 

 named of these — white, shaded with salmon, — 

 though one of the oldest hybrids, even now ranks 

 among the best. In the same year, P. edulis 

 superba — a peony still much grown — was also 

 produced by Lemon. In 1830, he originated P. 

 sulphurea — white, tinted yellowish green — a kind 

 sufficiently attractive to be cultivated to-day. 

 Lemon achieved not only greatly desired modi- 

 fications in colour and form, but also a pleasing 

 fragrance which exists in most of his varieties 

 and is very marked in some of them. 



Modeste Guerin, starting in 1835, in Paris, 

 with plants brought from China and Japan, made 

 rapid advances in improving the peony. From 

 then until 1866, he introduced more than forty 

 new varieties: among them General Bertrand 

 (1845), Modeste Guerin (1845), Duchesse d'Or- 

 leans(1846). Dr. Bretonneau(1850), Madame de 

 Vatry (1853) and Alexandre Dumas (1862), are 

 conspicuous for their excellence. It is interesting 

 to note that Guerin succeeded in getting in sev- 



50 



