Some Remarks on the Tree Pmony. 369 



plant of this species had ever been imported alive into England, 

 except the one above spoken of; and, if this supposition is true, 

 the whole stock now existing in Europe, and indeed in this coun- 

 try, has been raised from this. 



The largest plant of this species in our vicinity is, we beheve, 

 in the fine collection of J. P. Gushing, Esq., Belmont Place, 

 Watertown. This plant was formerly in the possession of Mr. 

 Wilham Lathe, of Cambridgeport, who imported it from Eng- 

 land, about nine or ten years since. He informs us that it was 

 the first plant that flowered in Massachusetts, and probably the 

 first in New England. It is grown in a pot, and generally re- 

 ceives the protection of the cellar or green-house during the 

 winter. In the spring of the past year it expanded four of five 

 of its magnificent blossoms. We do not know of any large 

 plants growing in the open air; but the nurserymen in the vicini- 

 ty have plants which have stood the winter without any protec- 

 tion. This species seeds freely if the stigmas are properly im- 

 pregnated. 



Paeonia Moiitan |)apaveracea var. Banksice. — This variety is 

 more common in our gardens than the species just described. It is 

 a very magnificent plant, and some of the blossoms that we have 

 seen were of monstrous size. It was introduced in 1789, and 

 was the first kind imported into Europe. It flowered for the first 

 time in the year- 1793. The flowers are large, very double and 

 spreading, measuring in expansion from four to eight inches in 

 diameter. The number of the petals varies according to the 

 strength and health of the plants; sometimes they are so double 

 as to force the calyx to turn back on the peduncle. Frequently 

 the flowers are produced with few or no petals at all; and again 

 many are intermediate between that state and the fullest flower. 

 The petals are of light pink color, fading, as they open, to a faint 

 blush, or white, towards the edges, and at the base deepening to 

 a purplish red : the dark color is sometimes shaded into the pink, 

 at others running into it in rays or featherings. The outer petals 

 are large, the inner ores gradually becoming smaller to the 

 centre of the flower, where they assume a deeper purple tinge, 

 and are much jagged or broken at their edges. The germens are 

 thickly clustered together, around which many yellow anthers 

 appear, which are conspicuous when the flowers are not very 

 double: when the flowers are full double, the anthers and petals 

 spring out together from among the germens, and the petals are 

 often considerably longer than those springing from the outside of 

 the latter. Variations take place in the size of the flowers in the 

 same season and on the same plant, — the older plants, as we 

 have before intimated, producing the finest blooms. When grown 

 in green-houses or conservatories, the color of the flowers is 

 lighter than when they are fully exposed to the air. The blos- 



VOL. II. — NO. X. 47 



