[Plate 24.] 



THE SALMON-COLOURED MOUTAN 



(moutan officinalis; salmonea.) 

 A Hardy Under-shrub from China, belonging to the Natural Order of Crowfoots. 



Pseonia Moutan, Salmonea. Journal of the Horticultural Society, vol. iii., p. 236. 



»o^c« 



HEN Mr. Fortune first visited China,, in the service of the Horticultural Society, the 

 acquisition of new Moutans was one of the first objects to which he attended. In his 

 " Wanderings " he mentions the beauty of the varieties seen by him at Shanghae, how he 

 heard of yellow, and purple, and blue sorts, and at one time saw lilacs and purples, some 

 nearly black ; at another, dark purples, lilacs, and deep reds. Afterwards, having discovered 

 that these things came from a place only six or eight miles from Shanghae, Mr. Fortune tells 

 us that he proceeded there daily during the time the different plants were coming into bloom, 

 and secured some most striking and beautiful kinds for the Horticultural Society. 



One of these, received by the Society in April, 1846, is now figured. About its beauty and 

 distinctness there can be only one opinion. With all the largeness and doubleness of varieties of 

 the common Officinal Pseony, it combines that delicacy of texture and fineness of colour which exist 

 among the Moutans alone. " The outer petals when fully blown are a pale salmon-colour ; the 

 inner have a deep rich tint of the same/'' The accompanying figure is in no respects an exaggeration 

 of the beauty of this variety. 



The name Moutan seems to be an alteration of the word Botan, the usual name of these plants 

 in Japan, as we are told by Ksempfer, who adds that it is also called Fkamigusa and HatsJcangusa. 

 As the Japanese name the common Pseony SaJcu jaJcu and Kawu JunJcusa, they seem to think the 

 Moutan and the Pseony distinct genera, in which we quite agree with them, for reasons that will be 

 given on another occasion, when we figure a still finer variety than this. It is to be suspected 

 also that more species than one is comprehended under the common name of Tree Pseony : even 

 although, as is probable, the Poppy Moutan (P. papaveracea) should be a mere variety of the 

 common kind ; for some of the Japanese kinds are said to form rapidly a woody stem eight or ten 

 feet high; a stature which the common Moutans would only gain after many years, in even favourable 

 climates. 



