THE BOOK OF THE PEONY 



IN AMERICA 



The fact that the peony does not appear in 

 horticultural literature in this country before 1800 

 may be accounted for more by the absence of the 

 literature than the absence of the peony. Not 

 till the beginning of the Nineteenth Century did 

 horticulture as distinct from agriculture attain 

 some individuality. The literature arose with 

 the art. 



Bernard McMahon in his American Garden- 

 ers' Chronicle — an ambitious work published in 

 1806 — gives a list of perennials suited to the open 

 ground in the Middle and Eastern States. He 

 includes five kinds of peonies: "P. officinalis: 

 common peony; albiflora: white flowered peony; 

 laciniata: jagged-leaved peony; hybrida: mule 

 peony, and tenuifolia: slender-leaved peony." 

 Presumably all these existed in America when 

 the book was printed, although it has been cruelly 

 suggested by one critic that McMaJion's lists 

 were compiled from English sources. 



As might be expected, the peony appears in 

 the Catalogue of John Bartram & Son of their 

 " Foreign Plants Collected from Various Parts 

 of the Globe " and cultivated at their Botanic 



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