BUTTERCUP FAMILY. Ranunculaceae. 



There are two kinds of Peony. This is a 

 Wild Peony 



Paednia Brbwnii robust and very decorative perennial, rich 

 Dark-red and unusual in coloring, the fine foliage set- 



Winter, spring ting off the dark flowers to perfection. The 

 Wash., Oreg., Cal. roots are WO ody, the stems smooth, from 

 eight inches to a foot and a half tall, and the leaves are 

 smooth, rich green, but not shiny. The nodding flowers 

 are an inch and a half across, with five or six greenish- 

 purple sepals, five or six petals, rich deep-red, tinged and 

 streaked with yellow and maroon; dull-yellow stamens and 

 green pistils. The whole flower is quite thick and leathery 

 in texture and rather coarse, sometimes so dark that it is 

 almost black. The flowers are often fragrant, but the 

 plant has a disagreeable smell, something like Skunk- 

 cabbage, when crushed. The large seed-pods, usually five, 

 are thick, leathery and smooth, with several seeds and are 

 a very conspicuous feature, the stems drooping as they 

 ripen and the pods resting on the ground in big bunches. 

 The whole plant is rather succulent and the foliage and 

 stems are more or less tinged with red and have a "bloom," 

 especially on the sepals. This grows in all sorts of places, 

 in the hot plains of the south and at the edge of the snow, in 

 northern, mountain canyons. In the south it blooms in 

 January and is sometimes called Christmas-rose. The 

 root is used medicinally by the Spanish-Californians and 

 by the Indians, "to give their horses long wind." These 

 plants were named in honor of Paion. the physician of the 

 e;ods. 



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