THE BOOK OF THE PEONY 



For the benefit of those who may wish to start 

 collecting peonies of botanical or historical in- 

 terest, or who may wish to use some of the wild 

 species in hybridising, I give a few notes on a 

 number of species and some of their varieties, 

 which notes include the original habitat and a 

 short description of the flower.^ 



1. Albiflora ( white flowered) . Central China and Siberia. 

 Older Varieties : 



Candida, 



Festiva, 



Fragrans, 



the first named albiflora to be imported into 

 England (1805), 



Humei, 



Pottsii, 



introduced in 1821, from China, by John Potts, 

 a collector who had been sent there by the 

 Royal Horticultural Society. There are six 

 peonies named Pottsii or a variety of the 

 same. The famous Pottsii in John Richardson's 

 garden was a rich deep crimson and double. 



^ For complete botanical descriptions of the prin- 

 cipal varieties, see Bailey's Standard Cyclopedia of 

 Horticulture, Vol. IH, p. 2431 (1916). 



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