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AN EXPOSITION OF THE GENUS PiEONIA. 
Extensive, varied, beautiful, and curious are the countless ol)jects com- 
prised in the collections of plants at present known in this country, blending- the 
colours of their flowers into an indefinite variety of hues, and assuming- shapes 
and odours to an equally numberless extent. Some from the dazzling- colour of their 
petals are almost too gaudy to admit of the mind properly to form an estimate of, 
or conceive precisely the extent of their beauty ; others, by their neatness and 
minute growth combine with their more noble brethren, and exhibit in their con- 
Ibrmation the traces of a divine hand, which call forth the noblest powers of the 
mind to investigate and admire. What form, what character, or what tint, says an 
eminent but ancient writer, can we not discover in one or other of nature's flowers ; 
and again, what, except the cheering beams of the sun, that renders the atmosphere 
congenial to our comfort, and stimulates vegetable nature into activity and newness 
of life, is there to render the earth attractive or admirable tothe pleasure- seeking 
traveller, or give an impulse to the musing- bard, so powerful as that w'hich nature 
displays in the growth of plants, or the development of their leaves and flowers ? In 
the endless variety and sub-variety of plants, and degrees, and sub-degrees of colour 
in their flowers, varying from the most brilliant and intense, to the more simple 
and unassuming, there is no one perhaps that rises higher in the scale of magnifi- 
cence than the genus Pseonia. For beauty and size of the flower, the pseony can 
scarcely be said to have a rival, and we find this exquisite property in the most ex- 
tensive degree in the Chinese tree pseony, or PcBony Moutan, and its varieties. 
This plant, and its splendid varieties, are all hardy, and will endure the open air 
of Britain ; although they are in the flowering season occasionally housed, it is not 
done because they cannot stand the cold or frost, but on account of their blossoms 
being liable to be bruised and afi'ected by rough winds. To flower them perfect 
and well, no place can equal a greenhouse, or, in cases where a greenhouse is not at 
hand, they may be brought to produce their magnificent blossoms in a high degree 
of perfection in glass frames, so constructed as to answer the size of the plants 
intended to flower in them. To grow good strong healthy plants that will flower 
well annually, it is necessary to apply the treatment recommended below. 
P. Moutan has given birth to many worthily esteemed and beautiful varieties, 
all of which in a great degree partake of the habit of the originals, and consequently 
require very similar treatment, as the following brief outline will show : — 
1st. Plants, of whatever size or age, require a loamy soil; still old established 
plants require this in a greater degree of strength than young ones. For young 
plants raised from seed, cuttings, &C.5 a loamy soil, blended with a little mellow 
sandy peat, we should say, will in general be found to suit them better than if loam 
alone is used ; and we feel persuaded that a little well rotted dung, mixed with the 
soil applied to old plants, will be found of some advantage. 
2d. A situation not too much exposed to the sun, nor too a great degree 
shaded, is to be sought for them. Too much sun is apt to act so powerfully upon 
the branches as to prevent them from freely swelling, or properly forming their 
