18 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



to many-seeded. Suffruticose deciduous shrubs, of low growth, natives of 

 temperate climates. 



Leaves compound, alternate or opposite, stipulate, deciduous, but with- 

 out possessing a clasping power. Flowers very large in Pseonia, very small 

 in Xanthorhiza ; and the following are the distinctive characteristics of 

 these genera : 



Ps.o^'SiA L. Sepals persistent. Petals orbicular, sessile. 



XanthouhTza L, Sepals deciduous. Petals 2-lobed, unguiculate. 



Genus I. 



PMO^^IAl.. The P^EONY. Lm. S^/s/. Polyandria Di-Pentagynia. 



Identification. The term Pseonia was applied by the Greeks to these plants, which have continued 

 to bear that name ever since. 



Synonymes. Peuny, Piony ; Pivoine, Fr.\ Gichtterrose, and Paonie, Ger.; Rosa del Monte, Span.; 

 Peonia, Ital. 



Dei illation. The term Paeonia is generally s;iid to have been given by Hippocrates and Diosco. 

 rides, in commemoration of Paeon, tlie physician who first used it in medicine ; but Professor Don 

 thinks it more probable that it is derived from Pieonia, a mountainous country of Macedonia, 

 where some of the species grow wild. Gichtterrose, Ger., signifies the gouty rose, from the 

 knobby or gouty appearance of the roots of the herbaceous species. 



Ge7i. Char. Calijx of 5 leafy, unequal, permanent sepals. Petals from 5 to 10, 

 somewhat orbicular. Stamens numerous. Disk fleshy, girding the ovaries. 

 Carpels follicular, from 2 to 5, large, many-seeded, terminated with thick 

 bilamellate stigmas. Seeds rather globose, shining. 



Leaves compound, alternate, biternate or bipinnate. Flowers large, rosy, 

 or rosy and white, usually Vv'ith a strong disagreeable smell. A suffruticose 

 shrub. Height from 3 ft. to 10 ft. Native of China and Japan. 



There is but one ligneous species, P. Moi'dan ; but there are several 

 varieties ; all nndershrubs, which never attain a great height, and the wood 

 of which always retains a herbaceous character, with a large pith. The roots 

 are ramose rather than tuberenis. The whole plant is narcotic and poisonous. 

 The varieties are all beautiful, and hanly in most parts of Great Britain ; 

 though, from vegetating early, they commonly suffer from spring frosts. 



3 1. P. AIou'tan Sims. The Moutan, or Tree, Pa;ony. 



Identification. Sims, Bot. Mag., t. 1154 ; Dec. Prod., 1. p. 65. ; Don's Mill, 1. p. 65. 



Synoiiymes. Pxbnia arbbrea Donn Hort. Can. ; P. suftrutic6sa Bot. Rep. ; Pivoine Moutan, and 

 Pivoine en Arbre, Fr. ; bauniartige Gichtterrose, Ger. ; Iloa Ouang, and Pe-Leang-Kin, Chinese. 



Derivation. The word Moutan has been applied to this species of pa;ony, in China, for above 1400 

 years. P. arburea and /'. suttVuticosa signil'y the tree and the snb-shru^by paeony. The German 

 name signifies tlie tree-like gouty rose. The Chinese name Hoa-Ouang signifies the king of flow- 

 ers, alluding to the beauty of the plant : and Pe-Leang-Kin, a hundred ounces of gold, in allusion 

 to the high price which some of tlie varieties bear in China. 



Spec. Char., Sfc. Segments of leaves oval-oblong, glaucous underneath. Car- 

 pels 5, villose. (Don's Mill.) A deciduous suffrutescent bush. China. 

 Height 3 ft. to 6 ft. Introduced in 1787. Flowers pink; May. Fruit 

 brownish green ; ripe in September. 

 Decaying leaves brown or black. 



Varieties. 



^ P. M. 1 [)avf:veracca Andrews. 

 Bot. Rep.', t. 403. ; Lod. Bot. 

 Cab., 547. ; Bot. Mag., 2 1 73. ; 

 and onr Jig. 29. Petals from 

 8 to 13, white, with a purple ^ 

 spot at the base of each. 

 Capsules altogether enclosed 

 in the urceolus, or disk. In- 

 troduced in 1805. Professor 

 Don remarks (bw. Br. rL- .^^ i'ttuma .4i.iu<. jjapateracea. 



