62 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Tlie Paeonies are most usually lierbaceous perennials, with a thick 

 stock giving off aerial branches, bearing dissected or pluripinnate 

 leaves, and ending in large flowers, under which are seen a number 

 of bracts, arranged in one continuous spiral with the leaves and 

 sepals, and intermediate between them in form.' P. Mont an Sims,' 

 a Chinese species, forms of which have been multiplied by cultivation, 

 and which has been made the type of a distinct section' and even 

 genus,^ diflfers from the others by its shrubby stems. It is in this 

 species, too, that the disk, becoming greatly developed, surrounds 

 the gyna^ceum almost entirely. The herbaceous Pajonies' grow in 

 the northern hemisphere, in Europe, Asia,* and America.' 



We have replaced near the Pa^onies/ not without doubt, Crosfso-wnifr 

 which some authors rank among the Dilleniacece ;^" and this 

 we have done because we la}' more stress on their perigynous 

 insertion than on the persistence of the calyx" and the presence of 

 an aril.'- The receptacle'^ is a deep cup-shaped cavit}' which bears on 

 its margins Ave sepals and five petals alternate with them (both 

 imbricated in the bud), with a large number of free perigynous 

 stamens. The filament is slender and filiform ; the oblong anther 

 has two cells which dehisce marginally by two longitudinal clefts.'^ 

 In the bottom of the receptacle are inserted the free carpels, varying 



* All these leaves which surround the perianth iii., 371). — Boiss., Diagn. PL Orient. — Hook. 

 have an angular divergence of | ; and, as we & Th., Fl. Ltd., i. 60. — S. & Zrcc, Fl. Jay. 

 have said, it is really impossible to decide where Fam., 76. — Walp., Rep., i. 61 ; ii. 745 ; v. 7 ; 

 the sopal-s end and the bracts begin, just as we Ann., i. It; ii. 1; iv. 30. 



have no sharp demarcation between these latter ^ C. Gay, Fl. Chil., i. 56. 



and the true leaves. Thus in P. lobaia Desf., * Adamonla, iii. 17; iv. 57. 



there are five concave quite entire orbicular ' Nutt., PI. Gamb. {Journ. Ac. Philnd., 



sepals. To these the carpels are suiMjrposed when scr. 2, i. 150). — Toukey, Fxp. Jl'ipple. Bot., 



of the same number. More externally are two t. 1. — H. H., Gen., 15, n. 17. 



narrow lanceolate h'avcs, while bi-twcen these and '" IJentham & Hooker say of this genus 



the five rounded sepals is a leaf which is inter- (/. cil.), comparing it to the I'aKinies, " Diff'erf 



nuHliiitc alike in ixwition and in form, for it is .s-cpalit persist enCihtis et sfminibiis arillAith 



acutely oval. In the fiowers of /'. tenui/olia L., Dilleiiiacearum." Now it so happens that both 



the bnicts, like the leaves, are more or less laci- thene dmracters exist in both genera, thoagb 



niate, and so is still sepal 1 ; while sepals 4 and in different degrees. 



5 are entire and rounded. Analogous facts are " Tlio calyx persists in Crotsosonta and most 



seen in /'. officinalis, lurallina, Moulan, &c. PtDOnies. 



^ Jiot. Mai]., t. 1151. — I)t'., Proilr., i. 65, " The I'ajonies have a short aril, no matter by 



n. 1. whiit name we cull it. 



' Sect. i. Moutan DC, /. <-il. '3 y[^■,^^ mithors consider this riK-optacle as a 



* LiNDLET, ex H. H., /. vil. Tlie srime tulw formed by the base of the sepals ; but the 

 author h:i8 made a aection Onttpia {Veg. Kim/d., insertion of the stamens provw that we have 

 128). bore to do with the winie organ as that which 



* i>cxA.'\\.,P(ron.,\iC.,l.dt.{Evpctonia H.Hn., o<'cupH's the base of the flower in liosacnr. 



I. cit.). '* Mori'ovor, after di-liiscencc the anthers bo- 



* (JuKN. k (lOi)B., Fl. Fr., i. 52.— Ueiciiu., ccrtne spindly rolled on themselves, us in some of 

 Icon., 122-128. — Kocii (Ann. Sr. Hal., ser. 2, the IV'onies. 



