400 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
nearly equal petals ; the pistils are variable in number, and enclose a 
great number of ovules; the fruit is a coriaceous follicule; the 
receptacle is swollen into a fleshy disc, which forms a sort of sack. 
The seeds are furnished with a slightly developed arill rising out 
of the placenta which surrounds it. The Peonies are herbaceous 
or somewhat shrubby perennial plants, with alternate leaves ; they 
are among the earliest ornaments of our gardens in the spring 
time. In the Moutan Peony, commonly known as the Tree Peony, 
the petals are sometimes white, marked at the base with a purple 
shade, and sometimes rose coloured. This Peony has become double 
under culture ; by cultivating this species for fifteen centuries the 
Chinese have obtained two hundred varieties. The Peony has 
been introduced into France since the t of the present 
century. We may also note the Common Peony (Péonia officinalis) 
with red, rose coloured, or variegated petals, the flowers of which 
are easily grown double. The Peonies were famous as agents of 
sorcery in the olden times; the Coral Peony is commonly known 
as the Male Peony. 
The Peony has a very ancient history, according to Theophrastus, 
and after him Pliny; it is to be gathered of necessity in the night, 
“for if any man shall pluck of the fruit in the day time, being 
seen of the woodpecker, he is in danger to lose his eyes,’’—this 
is, according to Gerarde, the seeds of the Peony. Even at the pre- 
sent day anodyne necklaces are worn round the necks of children 
cutting their teeth. It is a common garden plant, and although 
Withering thought he had found it among the Vincent rocks, on 
the Avon, near Bristol, growing wild, it was probably introduced 
there from some foreign country by ships entering the port of 
Bristol. “Amid the shelving rocks and loose shingly stones, at 
the elevation of a hundred feet above the river,” however, “ there 
ye may see the Peony spreading wide.” 
PapavERACE®. The Poppies have a calyx with two caducous 
sepals, a corolla of four petals, with numerous stamens, provided 
with a long filament, whose anthers open laterally by two longi- 
tudinal clefts. The unilocular pistil is almost entirely divided by 
many placentary glands, which, emanating from the walls, advance 
nearly to the centre, bearing a number of ee — in- 
nerted over its whole surface, 
