THE TREE PEONY 



ment was corroborated — or copied and accepted as 

 true — by a Chinese writer on natural philosophy. 

 Prior to 600, the peony was used by the 

 Chinese chiefly for medicinal purposes. About 

 this date, during the reign of the Emperor Yang 

 Te — connoisseur in many things — the tree peony 

 was introduced into gardens as an ornamental 

 plant. By 700, according to an old Chinese work 

 on " The Origin of Things and Matters," the 

 number of sorts grown had greatly increased and 

 the plant was found near the huts of the poor as 

 well as around the houses of the rich. Soon after 

 this, the growing of peonies had become so im- 

 portant that Gow Yang Sew established a gene- 

 alogical register (Mow tan poo) in which to 

 record the parentage and characteristics of the 

 kinds that were grown from seed. The first 

 botanical garden recorded in history goes back to 

 the time of Queen Hatasu in Egypt, about 1500 

 B.C. (the Garden of Eden, though doubtless com- 

 plete in the varieties of the time, did not, so far 

 as we know, include any scheme of classification) ; 

 but this Chinese pedigree book is the earliest in- 

 stance I have found of a common or garden tree 

 having a family tree of its own. Thirty differ- 



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