264 POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



mouth of Iris ("The Tempest/' Act iv. scene i) the 

 words 



" Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas 

 Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and pease, 

 Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, 

 And -flat meads thatched with stover, them to keep ; 

 Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims, 

 Which spongy April at thy hest betrims 

 To make cold nymphs chaste crowns." 



And it must be confessed that there is some justification 

 for their scepticism, since pioner or pyoner (forerunner 

 of our modern word pioneer) was used to indicate 

 digger in mediaeval times. Shakespeare himself used it 

 in this sense in " Hamlet." But it is at least as probable 

 that he alluded to the plant, for, after all, Nature's 

 banks are not "digged," but left to look after them- 

 selves. 



The Paeony was esteemed by the botanical writers 

 of Shakespeare's time. Parkinson, for example, had it, 

 and what is more, said that the double Paeony produced 

 seed with him, which, being sown, "bringeth forth 

 some single and some double flowers." The double 

 Paeony does not often do that in these days. Gerard 

 also knew the Paeony quite well, and records it as 

 growing wild at Southfleet, near Gravesend, although 

 there is an unkind suggestion that it was first deliber- 

 ately planted, and then hailed as a wilding by the 

 planter. Southfleet is a parish of fruit in these days, 

 and its market-gardens spread for many miles. 



The modern Paeony is one of the greatest of all 

 border plants. It is of vigorous growth and hardy 

 constitution, soon establishing itself, and spreading into 

 large bushes. When it has made itself at home it bears 

 its great brilliant flowers in abundance, moreover, it 



