BUTTERCUP FAMILY. Rananculaceae. 



There are two kinds of Peony. This is a 

 Wild Peony 



Paednia Brownii rot >ust 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 WOO( } y> fae stems smooth, from 

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

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

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

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

 streaked with yellow and maroon ; dull-yellow stamens an 

 green pistils. The whole flower is quite thick and leather 

 in texture and rather coarse, sometimes so dark that it 

 almost black. The flowers are often fragrant, but th 

 plant has a disagreeable smell, something like Skunl 

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

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

 a very conspicuous feature, the stems drooping as the 

 ripen and the pods resting on the ground in big bunche 

 The whole plant is rather succulent and the foliage an 

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

 especially on the sepals. This grows in all sorts of place 

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

 northern, mountain canyons. In the south it blooms : 

 January and is sometimes called Christmas-rose. Th 

 root is used medicinally by the Spanish-Californians an 

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

 plants were named in honor of Paion, the physician of th 

 gods. 



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