HERBACEOUS PEONIES, 



425 



of the coats and dresses of some young men and maidens. I became 

 inquisitive as to where they had grown, and I found the plants growing 

 in an old woman's " flower knot," as she was wont to call her garden — 

 a narrow strip about two feet wide between her cottage and the London 

 high road, on the Somerton hill, over which the stage coaches used to 

 travel from Exeter to London, and the spot which the coachmen and 

 guards proverbially said was the coldest in the whole drive. It is worth 

 noting that in this parish several Roman pavements have recently 

 been uncovered, as the Paeonies may have been brought there by the 

 Romans. I procured some of each of the species, and set to work in 

 the following year hybridising. I got a plant of corallina, which my 

 father's sister, an old lady of eighty-four, had found on Steep Holm. 

 an island in the Bristol Channel. The leaves of this species are 

 different from all others, being entire; the foliage of all others, I believe, 

 is divided ; the seeds, which remain on the seed-pods of corallina 

 after the pods are open, are very ornamental, and when the sun is 

 shining on them they look like amethysts. It so happened that the 

 woman from whom I got my first lot of Paeonies possessed the scented 

 variety, and from this fact I attribute my success in getting so many 

 highly scented kinds. 



I find Paeonies will grow freely in any kind of soil — peat, clay, or 

 stone brash — but they are gross feeders, and luxuriate in deep loam 

 with plenty of manure. I find by growing the various species, I have 

 Paeonies in bloom from the 1st of May to the end of June. It is very 

 pleasing to me to know that I have been the means of distributing 

 such a hardy and decorative plant to the million, giving them such a 

 profusion of bloom, requiring no protection from the severest weather, 

 enduring any amount of cold, any quantity of rain, or the severest 

 drought — filling, as the Paeony does, a great want, that of providing a. 

 quantity of flowers just before Roses may be had in abundance from 

 the open air. 



The Paeony is never attacked by any blight, game, vermin,* slug, or 

 snail, and my connection with it has been a source of renewed pleasure 

 from year to year. I have about five acres occupied with these noble 

 flowers, and when in bloom they are a great sight, people coming in 

 large numbers from far and near to see them and enjoy their perfume, 

 which can be detected at a considerable distance. The most useful 

 species to grow, with their varieties, are Moutan, decora, tenuifolia, 

 officinalis, paradoxa, and albifiora. Yours sincerely, 



Wm. Kelway. 



The result of the work of all these raisers may be fairly seen 

 in the collections submitted to you in the hall to-day. 



The flowers are very large ; in their varied shapes they are 

 fairly perfect ; and they have nearly every colour. The lines 

 which improvements should take are, sweeter scent ; a variation 

 of the petals of the flowers — in the one case to more even, closer 

 petals, in the other to more varied fimbriated petalled flowers ; 

 the separation of the earlier and later series, so as to prolong the 



* Slugs and the larvae of cockchafers have been known to work much 

 mischief, — Ed. 



O 



