62 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



The Pii?onies are most usually lierbaceous perennials, with a thick 

 stock giving oft* 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. Moidcui Sims,- 

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

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

 genus,^ differs 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 Pseonies^ grow in 

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



We have replaced near the Pasonies/ not without doubt, Crossosoma^ 

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

 we have done because we lay 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 cavity which bears on 

 its margins five 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. Lid., i. 60. — S. & Zucc, Fl. Jap. 



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



the sepals end and the bracts begin, just as we Ann., i. 14; ii. 4; iv. 30. 

 have no sharp demarcation between these latter ^ C. Gat, Fl. CJiiL, i. 56. 



and the true leaves. Thus in P. lobaia Desf., ^ Adansonia, iii. 47; iv. 57. 



there are five concave quite entire orbicular ^ Nutt., PI. Gamb. {Joiirn. Ac. PMlad., 



sepals. To these the carpels are superposed when ser. 2, i. 150). — Torret, Fxp. Wipple. Bot., 



of the same number. ]\Iore externally are two t. 1. — B. H., Gen., 15, n. 17. 

 narrow lanceolate leaves, while between these and '" Bentham & Hooker say of this genus 



the five rounded sepals is a leaf which is inter- {I. cif.), comparing it to the Pffionies, " Biffert 



mediate alike in position and in form, for it is sepaU.i persistentibus et seminibiis ariUntis 



acutely oval. In the flowers of P. tenuifoUa L., Dilleniacearum." Now it so happens that both 



the bracts, like the leaves, are more or less laci- these characters exist in both genera, though 



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



5 are entire and rouuded. Analogous facts are " The calyx persists in Crossosoma and most 



seen in P. officinalis, comUina, Moutan, &c. Peeonies. 



- Bot. Mag., t. 1151.— DC, Prodr., i. 65, ^' The Pasonies have a short aril, no matter by 



"• !• _ what name we call it. 



3 Sect. i. Moutan DC, I. cit. " Most authors consider this receptacle as a 



* Li>-DLET, ex B. H., /. cit. The same tube formed by the base of the sepals ; but the 



author h.is made a section Onapia (Veg. Kingd., insertion of the stamens proves that we have 



'^-°)- here to do with the same organ as that which 



« Sect, ii., Paon., DC, I. cit. {Eupaonia H.Bx., occupies the base of the flower in Eosacerp. 

 '• <"*'•)• '■• Moreover, after dehiscence the anthers be- 



" Gren. & fJoDR., Fl. Fr., i. 52.— Reichr., come spirally rolled on themselves, as in some of 



Icon., 122-128.— Kocn {Ann. Sc. Nat., scr. 2, the Ptconies. 



