490 On the Paeonia Moutan, or Tree Pasony, fyc. 



Ripe cuttings taken off in August or September, with a small 

 piece of the old wood at the end, and planted against the 

 sides of garden pots, in a mixture of loam, leaf mould, and 

 sand well drained, and protected from the air by glasses, 

 will succeed. The pots must be kept secured from the frost 

 in the winter, and shaded in the summer ; in the spring, the 

 progress of the cuttings may be assisted by being placed in 

 a frame with a gentle bottom heat. But the most general 

 plan of multiplying Moutans is by layers, the shoots for 

 which purpose should be planted either in protecting pits, 

 or, in sheltered borders, which should be covered with mats 

 spread over hoops ; the branches when laid down, require a 

 longer time than is usual with common shrubs to emit roots, 

 and the largest are seldom fit to be removed till they have 

 remained two years attached to the stool. The soil used for 

 this operation is good rich loam, made light by a consider- 

 able mixture of sand, with the addition of one-fourth part of 

 heath mould. The shoots when laid down require to have 

 a longitudinal slit, or tongue, made in the inner side of the 

 bend ; and this must be done with care, for, being brittle, the 

 wood is liable to break ; the tongued part should be bedded 

 in a mixture of loam and sand. 



In addition to the above, it may be interesting to know 

 the nature of the methods of propagating the Moutan in use 

 among the Chinese. Upon this subject we have no infor- 

 mation, except from the accounts in the Memoires sur les 

 Chinois, before alluded to. According to these, the modes 

 of propagation, exclusive of that by seeds, are three-fold, 

 viz. by suckers, by splitting the stem, or by grafting. 



When suckers are produced by an old plant, the earth is 



