N. 0. RANUNOULACEiE. 37 



Vern. : — Ud-salap (H.) ; Bbuma-madiya, yet ghas (Bhut.) ; 

 Mamekh (Pb.) ; Chandra, (the plant); Sujumiya (the young 

 edible shoot) N -W. P. 



Habitat : — West Temperate Himalaya, from Kuraaon to 

 Hazara. 5,000 to 10,000. In the upper Tons valley. 



A glabrous perennial herb. Stems 1-2 ft., leafy, erect. 

 Leaves alternate, 6-12 in. long; leaflets 3, usually 3-parted, 

 segments lanceolate, pointed, entire. Flowers few, showy 3-4 in. 

 across, long-stalked, usually solitary in the axils of the upper 

 leaves. Buds globose. Sepals 5, orbicular, concave, green, 

 persistent the outer ones ending in a leaf-like point. Petals 

 5 10, broadly ovate, concave, red or white. Stamens many. 

 Ovaries 1-3, densely hairy, many-ovuled, seated on a fleshy disk ; 

 style short, broad, recurved. Follicles ovoid, 1 in. Seeds few, 

 large, (Collett). 



Dr. Dymock observes : — <£ The tubers are of the female Pseony 

 of Dioscorides". It seems therefore that the male plant is 

 distinct, and is called P. Corallina ; the female is called P. 

 Officinalis. (Vide Pharmaco. Ind. Vol. I., P. 17). The flowers 

 are often pinkish. 



In the Botanical Maganize for July 1st, 1868 Dr. Hooker writes : — 



" In the " Flora Indica " Dr. Thomson and I referred the Himalayan 

 Peonies to forms of P. Officinalis, — a conclusion little acceptable to some 

 botanists, and not at all to gardeners. On reviewing the subject a propos of 

 the present plant, I see no reason to alter my opinion that, as compared with 

 the species of many other genera, the Himalayan ones may well be referred 

 to forms or varieties of the European ; but as they differ greatly in habit, 

 colour, and those qualities that render them worthy of cultivation, as well as 

 in some other points of a little more moment. I here keep one at any rate 

 distinct. This is the P. Emodi of Wallich, a common temperate Himalayan 

 plant from Kumaon to Kashmir which is easily recognised by its slender 

 habit, white, subpanicled flowers, and solitary tomentose carpel ; in this 

 respect alone, of a solitary tomentose carpel, it differs from P. Albiflom, Willd. 

 of Siberia ; and in the tomentose carpel alone from a Kashmir one-carpelled 

 plant, hitherto not distinguished from this, and which, therefore, differs 

 from P. albiflom in the solitary carpel alone." 



H * * f) r> More P.L.S. says of it that it is the most distinct of all the 

 herbaceous Peonies, several of the flowers expanding together on the same 

 stem, and being always monogynous. It is more tender than any other 

 herbaceous species, and appears above ground a month earlier than these 

 do." 



