A NEW CLASSIFICATION OF THE GENUS P.EONIA. 429 



of those species, as Asa Gray would have said, are confluent in a 

 series. 



I have endeavoured to make it easy by this arrangement to 

 refer any plant to a group of a limited number of species, and 

 then by means of short descriptions to determine the species or 

 botanical variety to which it must belong. I have set myself 

 to understand the species as known to Anderson, who gave ug 

 the first good monograph, more than seventy years ago, in the 

 twelfth volume of the Transactions of the Limiean Society, and 

 as held by Baker, who gave us the second, published in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle of 1884. In that, but not including all 

 the garden varieties to which Anderson gave botanical status, I 

 believe I have succeeded. I carry discrimination a step further 

 than Mr. Baker does, but I deal mainly with species according 

 to his monograph, and, considering the nature of the plants, I 

 think that enough for one season, as a basis, especially if I may 

 be allowed at a future time to return to the subject. 



Mr. Barr has numerous forms in his well-known collection 

 that require prolonged attention, for the plants of this genus are 

 such that they cannot well be understood until the eye has been 

 educated to see clearly the points they present. "We may find it 

 necessary to make more species or varieties for some of those 

 plants that Mr. Barr has, or for others that vail be introduced. 

 But this must be done, in most cases, after some, deliberation. 

 We have, in fact, still to make a study of this genus. It is one 

 that can only be understood by study in the garden, and with 

 proper means. We must have the plants of this genus got 

 together, just as Mr. Barr has got together those of the genus 

 Narcissus ; indeed, from what I have seen, he already promises 

 to do as much for it as he has done for the genus Narcissus. The 

 best example we can have for its treatment is that devoted to Iris 

 by Professor Foster, which is, in fact, the one method of treatment 

 for all critical garden genera. We have, no doubt, a great deal 

 to discover and much to learn. We must get seed and plants 

 from all quarters where Pasonies are found, and then, as we get 

 the wild plants side by side, we shall learn what the forms and 

 variations of the genus are worth. I believe myself in the 

 permanence of many of those forms we call slight, and I think it 

 not amiss to ask respect for all so-called mere forms that are 

 truly wild. They are important for study, and it is only by 



