i46 ON THE TREE PCEONY, 



ARTICLE II. 



ON THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE TREE PCEONY. 



BY AN ARDENT AMATEUR. 



Pceony belongs to Polyandria, Digynia Lena: Ranunculaceae, 

 Nat. Ord. P. officialis, lias been in this country ever since 1562. 

 It is a native of Switzerland. P. cosallina is a native of this 

 country, but the only place where to my knowledge it is found 

 coiled, is the Flat Holmes, a rocky island in the Bristol Channel, 

 which by the bye, is noticed for its natural production. Pliny 

 mentions, the Pceony as one of the first known plants, that it was 

 called after Pceon, a physician who is mentioned by Homer in his 

 Iliad, 5th book, 900th line, when Mars had been wounded: 



" Thus he who shakes Olympus with his nod, 



" Then give to Poson's care the bleeding god 



" With gentle hand the balm he pour'd around, 



"And heal'd the immortal flesh, and clos'd the wound." 



Pliny also says that it was called Pentoboran, and Glycisides 

 by some, but the name seems to have been dropped. Montan is 

 a Chinese word for this particular variety of Pceony, which was 

 introduced by Sir Joseph Banks, from China, in 1794. Although 

 he introduced it first to me, it had been known by hear-say 

 for a long time, its beauty extolled, its magnificence exaggerated: 

 £100 at first was thought a fair price, and in China, plants of the 

 choice sorts were sold at a high price. It is a most magnificent 

 plant and valuable ; as with the protection of a wall or hedge 

 near the ground with wicker work, it will flower in April, May, 

 and June, and stands our winters. The difficulty of propagating 

 it with success occasions it to be sold at a high price. P. papa- 

 veracea generally costs from 15s. to 20s. the single plant : to 

 those who are desirous of propagating this handsome plant, I re- 

 commend the following operation, all of which I have tried and 

 very generally with success. 



When the Pceonies are budding, that is to say about February, 

 a ring of bark about one-sixteenth of an inch wide should be cut 

 out all round the stem, above and below each bud in the stem 

 or stems of the plant to be operated upon : the sap being ob- 

 structed in this manner, lay the branches, leaving the leading 

 shoot at the end only above the gound. Five or six months after, 



