THE PEONY 71 



them grow, has been their chief incentive. Here is an example of 

 your real Peony lover: Two or three years ago I visited your Mr. 

 Fewkes whom all of us Peony people have come to regard in such 

 high esteem. After we had enjoyed the Peonies in his garden we 

 went inside, where in a vase he had three of the most wonderful 

 blooms I have ever seen. They were Lemoine's La Lorraine and 

 Dessert's Therese and Rosa Bonheur. As we stood admiring them 

 he remarked, " Do you know? it almost seems to me as if it is worth 

 a year of a man's lifetime, just to be permitted to look upon a 

 thing so beautiful!" Truly the Peony is an aristocrat. 



Classification. 



The Chinensis Peony (albiflora), in its original or wild state, 

 was a single white flower, and the various stages of its transition 

 from its original single type to the perfect double flower, forms the 

 basis of the classification by the American Peony Society of the 

 modern Peony in its various forms as follows : — 



Single. Those with a single row of wide guard petals, and a 

 center of yellow pollen-bearing stamens. 



Semi-double. Those with several rows of wide petals, and a 

 center of stamens and partially transformed petaloids. 



Japanese. These have wide guards the same as the singles, 

 but with the stamens and anthers greatly enlarged into narrow, 

 thick petaloids of various colors, tipped with vestiges of yellow; 

 the anthers are without pollen. 



Anemone. A step farther in the process of doubling, with the 

 stamens all transformed into short, narrow petals, forming a round 

 cushion in the center of the flower. 



Bomb. The next step, in which all the center petals are imi- 

 formly wide, approaching the guards, but distinctly differentiated 

 from them, forming a globe-shaped center without collar or crown. 



Crown. In this type Avide petals are developed in the center of 

 the flower, forming a high crown, with the narrow short petals 

 forming a ring or collar around it. Often the crown and guards 

 are of one color, and the collar another, or of a lighter shade. 



Semi-Rose. Flowers in which the petals are all uniformly wide, 



