MYTHOLOGY, AND HISTORY OF THE PEONY 



eral of his peonies a touch of yellow, which up 

 to this time was almost an unknown colour in 

 this flower. Some of his varieties that had yellow 

 in them were put out before the first yellow peony 

 — P. Wittmaniana — was discovered. Three in- 

 stances of what he accomplished in this regard are 

 Grandiflora lutescens (1840), with fleshy white 

 guard petals and a yellow centre, Reine des Fran- 

 9ais (1842), with fleshy pink guard petals and 

 white centre shaded yellow, and Triomphe de 

 Paris ( 1 850 ) , white with yellowish centre. Guerin 

 also produced some red peonies — chiefly with 

 magenta tints — which owed their dark colour to 

 P. Pottsii. 



By 1840, the Prince de Salm Dyck, an ama- 

 teur horticulturist who was a native of Cologne 

 but who resided for many years in Paris, had 

 imported a number of valuable plants direct from 

 the Orient. These apparently passed to the 

 House of Solange Bodin near Paris. From 184.5 

 on, some fine new double varieties were sent out 

 by this establishment : none of these, however, are 

 capable of identification at the present time. 



The collection raised by M. Jacques was in- 

 herited by his nephew, M. Victor Verdier, pre- 



51 



