468 On the Paeonia Moutan, or Tree Paeony, §c. 



word Moutan, as the specific name ; that was first applied to 

 it by Dr. Sims,* in 1808 ; and he was followed in the use of 

 it in the second edition of the Hortus Kewensis ;f and though 

 some writers % have given other specific names to it, yet 

 that of Moutan seems now established ; ILempfer's § account 

 of it is under the name of Botan ; and in the Memoires sur 

 les Chinois,|| compiled by the Jesuit Missionaries, and pub- 

 lished in France in 1778, it is called the Moutan. 



Paeonia Moutan is readily distinguished from all the other 

 species of the genus by its suffrutescent stem. The majority 

 of the plants at present in our gardens are small bushes, not 

 exceeding four feet in diameter ; some few old ones are larger, 

 and they will grow to be eight or ten feet high, and will 

 extend equally in breadth. The branches if sufficiently 

 vigorous, produce each a single flower at their extremities. 

 The leaves are very distinctly biternate; they are shining 

 green, more or less dark above, glaucous underneath, and 

 may be described as smooth, though a very few hairs occa- 

 sionally exist on their petioles and the under parts of the 

 folioles. Differences in the leaves of the varieties are ob- 

 servable ; the flowers, however, afford the chief distinctions, 

 in the number, colours, and markings of the petals. The 

 flower buds differ from those of other species of the genus, 



* See Botanical Magazine, folio 1154. 



f Hortus Kewensis, Edit. 2, Vol. iii. page 315. 



X It is called P. suffruticosa in the Botanists Repository, folio 373, &c; 

 fruticosa in Dumont de Coueset's Botaniste Cultivateur, Edit. 2, Toine iv. 

 page 461, and P. arborea, in the 5th edition, page 134 of Donns Hortus 

 Cantabrigiensis, as well as in some of the preceding editions of the same work. 



§ See ILempfee Amaenitates Exotica?, page 862. 



|| Vol. iii. page 461. 



