By Joseph Sabine, Esq. 



409 



in having almost uniformly five spatulate bractes arranged 

 circularly close below the calyx. The calyx leaves are five 

 in number, of different sizes, as in the species of Herbaceous 

 Paeonies. The flowers in a conservatory first appear in April, 

 and are produced and remain in beauty till the middle of 

 May. In the open border they open in May, and continue 

 to expand until June. The membrane which so conspi- 

 cuously envelopes the germens in the variety called Papave- 

 racea, may be observed nearly as perfect in some of the other 

 varieties. The natural number of germens (called Carpella by 

 M. Decandolle in his Prodromus) is five ; these are occa- 

 sionally multiplied to six, which was erroneously supposed* to 

 be the regular quantity in the Papaveracea. When a greater 

 increase takes place in the numbers of the germens, the mul- 

 tiplication of them is within the centre of the proper ones, 

 and they are then often very numerous. The seeds, as far as 

 my observations have extended, are dark brown when ripe. 



1. Pceonia Moutan Papaveracea. The plant which has 

 been adopted as the type of the species, in consequence qf 

 its having single, or rather nearly single flowers, has been 

 always called Papaveracea, not because its petals are like 

 those of the Poppy, but because its germens, when enveloped 

 by their membranous covering, resemble a capsule of the 

 large Papaver Somniferum. It was when first described 

 in 1807, in Andrews's Repository, folio 463, considered 

 as a separate species; and adopted as distinct from the 

 other two plants then known, by Sir James Edward 

 Smith, in Rees's Cyclopaedia, on the ground of a supposed 

 specific dissimilarity, founded on its germens being always 

 * Andrews's Repository, folio 463. Smith in Rees's Cyclopaedia, art. Paxmia* 



