EXTENDING THE PERIOD OF BLOOM 



(4) Next in point of flowering come the tree 

 peonies. These have as ancestors a primitive 

 Chinese species, P. suffruticosa or P. moutan, and 

 are distinguished from the herbaceous peony in 

 having a shrub-hke habit and a permanent woody 

 growth that does not die down to the ground in 

 the Autumn. This type has been cherished and 

 cultivated in China and Japan for hundreds of 

 years, and has, since 1787, received much atten- 

 tion in Europe — particularly in England. In 

 many places in England, however, it is grown 

 with but indifferent success, which is due possibly 

 to the climate or to local conditions. It does bet- 

 ter in eastern America, where the climate — es- 

 pecially of the Atlantic Coast slope of the United 

 States — is similar to that of interior China, its 

 original habitat. The tree peony usually reaches 

 a height of three or four feet. There is an in- 

 stance of one in England twelve feet high and 

 thirty-six feet in circumference which never failed 

 for twenty-five years to produce annually several 

 hundred blooms. The flowers of P. moutan are 

 remarkable for their beauty of form, texture and 

 colour combined ; they are also very large — often 

 measuring from seven to ten inches across — and 



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