3IO 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



tinction of possessing a specimen of the 

 tree peony, and plants were sold at loo louis 

 each. It does not appear to have reached 

 England until the close of the eighteenth 

 century, when it was imported from Canton 

 by Sir Joseph Banks. 



The continental gardeners greatly im- 

 proved the type, and the Chinese varieties 

 and some of the forms produced by Sene- 

 clause, Mouchelet and others are not sur- 

 passed by the most superb productions of 

 modern nurseries. The opening up of 

 commercial relations between the western 

 world and Japan about 50 years ago, gave 

 a new impetus to the cultivation of the 

 flower. The Japanese gardeners had been 

 quick to take advantage of the tendencies 

 to variation which this flower manifests in 

 cultivation, and had produced hundreds of 

 forms, the best of which they ingeniously 

 propagated. Those brought to England 

 and the continent in the forms most favored 

 were the single and semi-double varieties. 

 They were brought to Europe in great num- 

 bers and when crossed with the older im- 

 portations from China produced seedlings, 

 the best of which have been selected by 

 careful growers and are now available at 

 reasonable prices. 



In England a special impetus has been 

 given to the cultivation of the flower by 

 Messrs. Kelway & Sons. By intelligently 

 directed crossing and selection they have 

 produced varieties equalling. if not 

 surpassing, the finest productions of 

 continental growers. They catalogue up- 

 wards of 300 varieties, and while among 

 these many eastern forms doubtless mas- 

 querade under new names, and others ap- 

 pear that are not any great improvement 

 upon the older varieties, yet it must be con- 

 ceded that many of Kelway's productions 

 are veritable novelties of the highest merit. 



The nurseries at Rochester, New York, 

 many years ago distributed tree peonies of 

 French origin. A plant there obtained 



Tree Peony, Yukiarashi (Snow Storm) 



From the Tokio Nursery o. Enormous blooms nearly a foot 

 in diameter. The most delicate silvery-white petals, tossing 

 in lovely confusion ; anthers bright gold. A flower of exquisite 

 beauty and purity. 



was long a striking and beautiful object on 

 the lawn of the late H. L. Loucks, in Wel- 

 lington street, Ottawa, immediately adjoin- 

 ing the V'anCourtland property. Its size 

 and period of flowering — weeks in advance 

 of the ordinary peony — attracted my atten- 

 tion, and annually when the plant was 

 blooming I visited the garden to admire it. 

 ^Ir. Loucks told me that he had no diffi- 

 culty in bringing it through the winter. He 

 simply inverted over it an empty barrel or 

 packing case. When moving to a new 

 house W'here he could no longer enjoy the 

 delight of growing a few flowers he gave 

 me the pride of his garden. I cut it back 

 and divided it. One of the plants, now up- 

 wards of four feet in height and of equal 

 diameter bore during ^lay more than 150 

 enormous blooms. Roots purchased in 

 Japan six years ago at trifling cost have 

 bloomed profusely during the last two 

 years, producing flowers of varied colors 



