] 97 
PiEONIA EDULIS REEVESIANA. 
(reeves’ tree peony.) 
linn^ean class and order. natural order. 
POLYANDRIA DIGYNIA. RANUNCULACEtE. 
Generic Character Calyx , of five sepals, leafy, persisting. Corolla, of five or of many petals, 
without claws. Stamens helow the germen, filaments filiform, anthers ohlong, erect, two-celled, 
bursting outwards. Style , none. Stigmas , from three to five, sitting, thick, recurved, downy, 
persisting. Capsules , three or five, full of seeds, which are roundish, hard, and albuminous. 
Specific Character — Roots thick and fleshy. Stems , many, half shrubby, bark rugged, exfoliating 
when two or three years old. Leaves and flower as represented on the plate. 
No plant, mentioned by Kempfer and Thunberg in their Floras of China and 
Japan, excited greater interest among European botanists than did the tree peony 
or Moutan of the Chinese. 
The officers belonging to the East India Company, whether residents at, or 
visiters of, Canton, were frequently commissioned to inquire for, and purchase this 
plant. Several single plants were received, from time to time, between the years 
1785 and 1790, which went to Kew. These, however, being treated as stove 
plants, uniformly failed ; but a fresh supply of plants was purchased at Canton, and 
brought home by Mr. Main, in 1794, consigned to Sir Joseph Banks and others. 
Three varieties of these survived the voyage, and were rapidly propagated and 
distributed in British collections. Since 1820 many additional varieties have been 
introduced, and chiefly by the well directed exertions of Mr. Reeves, to whom 
this country is indebted for many other Chinese rare plants, and among them our 
present subject. 
Our drawing was taken from a plant in the collection of Mr. Tate, of Sloane 
Street, who has several other unique things from the same quarter of the world. 
This variety is treated and propagated like the other Moutans, and is certainly a 
very striking sort and well worth cultivation. 
VOL. i. — NO. IX. 
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