•^ The Scents of Sarly Summer $£ 



maltreated, but not to the same extent as the Portugal 

 laurel. 



The peonies will soon be in their full splendour, and 

 there is a succession of scented varieties flowering from 

 the first week in June. Amongst the earliest are * Sunrise ' 

 (peach-coloured without and rose and yellow within), 

 1 Lady of the West ' (rose without and cream-white 

 centre petals), and a little later the glorious ' Lady Alex- 

 andra Duff.' By the end of June there is a wealth of 

 splendour amongst the scented peonies — ' Bunch of 

 Perfume ' (rich rose-colour, and the most sweetly scented 

 of all), ' Limosel,' * Empress of India ' (creamy white and 

 pink without), ' James Kelway,' ' Lady Curzon,' * Joy 

 of Life,' the tall-growing ' Dorothy Daniel,' ' Mounte- 

 bank,' and the spice-scented varieties, ' British Beauty ' 

 and ' President PoincareV 



The peony is not only one of the most beautiful, but 

 one of the oldest cultivated flowers in the world. Over 

 a thousand years ago the Chinese gave the flower the 

 name which it still retains in that language, and which 

 means ' most beautiful.' To them the peony stood for all 

 that the rose does to us — the very queen of flowers — and 

 the fourth month of the year was called ( the moon of the 

 peony,' just as we speak of June as ' the month of roses.' 

 They grew the peony partly for medicinal purposes, but 

 the flower has for centuries been the hobby of wealthy 

 Chinese garden-lovers. They prided themselves on the 

 age of choice specimens in their gardens. Some years ago 

 there were peonies in the temple gardens of Peking, which 

 were said to be over 200 years old. Even in the eighth 

 century the Japanese were growing both tree and her- 

 baceous peonies, having imported them from China. We 



85 



