PEONY. 207 



height of two or three feet. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, 

 doubly winged, with unequal segments, and oblong or ovate- 

 lanceolate lobes, glabrous and deep green above, whitish beneath. 

 The flowers are large, solitary, terminal, of a deep red colour. 

 The calyx consists of fine unequal, ovate, concave sepals. The 

 petals are large, rounded, concave, destitute of claws, and vary 

 in number from five to ten. The stamens are numerous, at- 

 tached to the receptacle, with short slender filaments supporting 

 oblong anthers. The germens varying in number from two to 

 five, are ovate-lanceolate, surrounded at the base by a fleshy disk, 

 and crowned by sessile, thick, obtuse, curved stigmas. The 

 fruit consists of two to five capsules or follicles, ovate, pubes- 

 cent, nearly straight, bright red within, crowned with the bila- 

 mellated stigmas, and containing numerous dark shining seeds. 

 Plate 36, fig. 3, («) calyx and pistils with a few stamens 

 remaining ; (6) seed ; (c) longitudinal section of the same, shew- 

 ing the embryo at the base of the albumen. 



Common Peony grows wild in woods and stony places in 

 Switzerland, some parts of France, Spain, and Siberia, and is 

 very commonly cultivated in the British garden, for the sake of 

 its showy flowers, which appear in June. 



The name Pceonia is derived from that of Peon, the celebrated 

 physician, who, according to the ancient mythology, first dis- 

 covered the medicinal properties of the plant, and with it cured 

 Pluto of a wound inflicted by Hercules. 



The genus is noted for the splendour of its flowers and the 

 luxuriance of its foliage. The varieties of common Peony, 

 with purple or rose-coloured double flowers, are those usually 

 cultivated. The Chinese Tree Peony {Pceonia Moutan) is also 

 prized for the beauty of its flowers. The edible Peony (P. 

 edulis) is so called from its being used by the Daurians and 

 Monguls as a culinary vegetable. 



Old authors speak of two varieties of Peony, male and female, 

 the former * distinguished by its smaller size, and lighter coloured 

 flowers ; and considered by some more efficacious as a medi- 



* Various ridiculous stories are related of this plant by Theophrastus, 

 Pliny, iElian, and others. jElian designates it the Aglaophotis of the earth, 

 or Cynospastus, and Josephus (Hist. Jews, vii. c. 25.) calls it Baaras ; 

 affirming that it is not gathered without danger, and that a string must be 

 fastened to it in the night, and thus rooted up by a dog, &c. 



