July 2, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



321 



gardens one may see immense bushes of them, eight feet in 

 diameter, and bearing hundreds of huge blooms, each as 

 large as a moderate-sized cabbage. Where they thrive these 

 Tree Pasonies have few equals among early summer flowering 

 hardy shrubs. 



The Belgian and French nurserymen are the chief growers 

 and raisers of Moutan Paeonies ; Messrs. Makoy & Co., of 

 Liege, and M. Dessart, Chenomceaux, Indre et Loire, having 



suspected that the cause lay in this very fact. That there is 

 not any close affinity between the tree and the herbaceous 

 species is evident from their refusing to cross with each 

 other, whilst there ought to be good physiological reasons 

 against grafting a decidedly woody shrub on the roots of a 

 plant of very succulent and herbaceous character. The right 

 method, one would think, would be to use seedlings of P. 

 Moutan as stocks. Herr Max Leichtlin, who has raised one 



Fig. 44. — Trillium sessile, var. Calit'ornicum. — See page 320. 



exceptionally rich collections. The species was introduced 

 from China to Kew by Sir Joseph Banks in 1787. Many varie- 

 ties have since been obtained from the same source. The 

 great range of variation in size, form and color, and even in 

 leaf characters, is remarkable in this species. 



I believe it is the almost universal custom to graft/'. Moutan 

 on the roots of the herbaceous kinds, and in trying to account 

 for the bad behavior of the Tree PaBony at Kew I have half 



of the finest seedlings in Ceres, states that the seeds take 

 about fifteen months to germinate, and the plants are from 

 five to seven years old before they flower. Amongst the 

 varieties grown at Kew the richest in color is that called 

 Gloria Belgarum. The flowers are full double, a foot in 

 diameter, and rich rosy red. These plants require a deep, 

 rich, loamy, rather moist, soil, and a position shaded from very 

 bright sunshine. In England they rush into growth so early 



