THE BOOK OF THE PEONY 



very beautiful ones — Stephania (note colour 

 plate) , Grover Cleveland, dark crimson, and Mrs. 

 McKinley (note colour plate). Shortly before 

 his death, Terry sold most of his collection for 

 twenty-five hundred dollars. 



John Richardson, an enthusiastic lover of or- 

 namental plants, raised in his small garden in 

 Dorchester, Massachusetts, a number of impor- 

 tant new varieties of peony. Some fragrant 

 flowers of his growing are noted as far back as 

 1857, about thirty years after the first fragrant 

 peonies were produced in France. From that 

 year until his death in 1887 he was actively en- 

 gaged in growing seedlings. He had only a few 

 mature plants — some forty albiflora peonies — but 

 in addition he carefully tended their descendants, 

 " candidates for fame " as he called them. He 

 originated about eighteen double varieties distin- 

 guished by their fine form, colour, vigorous up- 

 right habit, large size and uniformly high quality. 

 Many of them were awarded certificates of merit 

 by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The 

 chief stock from which his seedlings came prob- 

 ably was; Festiva Maxima, Festiva and Pottsii 



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