PEONIES ", 



FROM the earliest period of Greek Mythos, the age that June, 

 through the mist and glamour of time appears to us Home of the 

 glowing with poetry and exuberant fancy, there comes Peony 

 the legend of Poeon, the medicine-man, disciple of ^Esculapius, 

 whose function it was to heal the wounds received by the gods 

 during the Trojan war. Having cured Pluto of injuries that 

 had been inflicted by Hercules, jEsculapius, under the sting of 

 torturing jealousy, compassed his death. But Pluto, out of love 

 and gratitude, transformed the ensanguined body into a crimson- 

 stained flower, so that the world should for all time have a 

 memorial of the renowned healer, and the flower was endowed 

 with his name, the Paeonia, and still perpetuates it. 



Peonies, in their different varieties, are at home in many 

 parts of the globe. One need travel no further than to the 

 Southern slopes of the Alps, Monte Generoso, for instance, to 

 see them growing wild in profusion ; and other distinct species 

 are to be found throughout Southern Europe, the Caucasus, 

 Persia, Siberia, China, Japan and North America. All are 

 denizens of the Northern Hemisphere, and in their natural state, 

 are single, or at most semi-double; but the stamens, as with 

 Roses, readily lend themselves under cultivation to development 

 into petals, and hence we get the fine double flowers that are 

 now so popular. 



Thirty, twenty years ago, even to not a few people at the 

 present day, the name of Peony suggested nothing but the old 

 double red May-blooming flower that has now been banished 

 from so many gardens, but that still is to be found in cottage 



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