18 ARBORETUM ET FRUT:CETUM BRITANNICUM. 
to many-seeded. Suffruticose deciduous shrubs, of low growth, natives of 
temperate climates, 
Leaves compound, alternate or opposite, stipulate, deciduous, but with- 
out possessing a clasping power. Fowers very large in Peeonia, very small 
in Xanthorhiza; and the following are the distinctive characteristics of 
these genera : — 
Pro‘ni4 L. Sepals persistent. Petals orbicular, sessile. 
XantHorui'za L. Sepals deciduous. Petals 2-lobed, unguiculate. 
Genus I. 
PHONIA WL. Tue Peony. Lin. Syst. Polyandria Di-Pentagynia. 
Identification. The term Pzonia was applied by the Greeks to these plants, which have continued 
to bear that name ever since. . 
Synonymes. Peony, Piony ; Pivoine, Fy.; Gichtterrose, and Paonie, Ger.; Rosa del Monte, Span.; 
Peonia, Ital. 
Derivation. The term Peonia is generally said to have been given by Hippocrates and Diosco- 
rides, in commemoration of Pxon, the physician who first used it in medicine ; but Professor Dan 
thinks it more probable that it is derived from Pzonia, 2 mountainous country of Macedonia, 
where some of the species grow wild. Gichtterrose, Ger., signifies the gouty rose, from the 
knobby or gouty appearance of the roots of the herbaceous species. 
Gen. Char. Calyx of 5 leafy, unequal, permanent sepals. Petals from 5 to 10, 
somewhat orbicular. Stamens numerous. Disk fleshy, girding the ovaries. 
Carpels follicular, from 2 to 5, large, many-seeded, terminated with thick 
bilamellate stigmas. Seeds rather globose, shining. 
Leaves compound, alternate, biternate or bipinnate. Flowers large, rosy, 
or rosy and white, usually with a strong disagreeable smell. A suffruticose 
shrub. Hejght from 3 ft. to 10 ft. Native of China and Japan. 
There is but one ligneous species, P. Moztan; but there are several 
varieties ; all undershrubs, which never attain a great height, and the wood 
of which always retains a herbaceous character, with a large pith. The roots 
are ramose rather than tuberous. The whole plant is narcotic and poisonous. 
The varieties are all beautiful, and hardy in most parts of Great Britain; 
though, from vegetating early, they commonly suffer from spring frosts. 
a 1. P. Movu’ran Sims. The Moutan, or Tree, Pzony. 
Identification. Sims, Bot. Mag., t. 1154. ; Dec. Prod., 1. p.65.; Don’s Mill, 1. p. 65. 
Synonymes. Pexdnia arbbrea Donn Hort. Can.; P. suffruticdsa Bot. Rep.; Pivoine Moutan, and 
Pivoine en Arbre, Fr. ; baumartige Gichtterrose, Ger.; Hoa Ouang, and Pé-Leang-Kin, Chinese. 
Derivation. The word Moutan has been applied to this species of pony, in China, for above 1400 
years. P. arborea and P. suffruticdsa signify the tree and the sub-shrubby peony. The German 
name signifies the tree-like gouty rose. The Chinese name Hoa-Ouang signifies the king of flow- 
ers, alluding to the beauty of the plant: and Pé-Leang-Kin, a hundred ounces of gold, in allusion 
to the high price which some of the varieties bear in China. 
Spec. Char., Sc. Segments of leaves oval-oblong, glaucous underneath. Car- 
pels 5, villose. (Don’s Mill.) A deciduous sufftutescent bush. China. 
Height 3ft.to 6 ft. Introduced in 1787. Flowers pink ; May. Fruit 
brownish green; ripe in September. 
Decaying leaves brown or black. 
Varieties. 
% P.M. 1 papeverdcea Andrews. 
Bot. Rep., t. 463. ; Lod. Bot. 
Cab., 547.; Bot. Mag., 2175. ; 
and our jig. 29.—Petals from 
8 to 13, white, with a purple 
spot at the base of each. 
Capsules altogether enclosed 
in the urceolus, or disk. In- 
troduced in 1805. Professor 
Don remarks (Sw. Br. Fl.- si 
Pweoua Mouwun papaveracea. 
