POLYANDRIA. ( 20 ) 
HEROIC PIONY. 
T his elegant Flower, which has fo much the Afpe6l of a Child of 
Culture, came into my Hands the Produce of abfolutely Savage-nature. 
Greece, and fbme Parts of the northern Europe, produce that fimpie 
MalePiony, from which our Gardeners have, in the Courfe of many Ages, rais’d 
the vaft double Flower of the fame Name : but that, with fome little loofe and 
cafual Variegation in the Petals, has been their utmoft Reach. Here we behold it, 
ftrip’d like a Carnation and proliferous ; one flowering from the Centre of the 
other : and this from Ample Nature. Perhaps it is the utmoft Inftance that 
has been, or can be produc’d of her Luxuriance. I have nam’d it Heroic, as it 
tranfcends common Nature j and reminds us of what is called the heroic Style 
in Painting. 
The Country whence it came was Africa 5 a Quarter of the Globe from 
whence we have not before receiv’d this Plant : but tho’ an African, it is not 
an Inhabitant of the parch’d Sands. Some few Miles up the River Senegal 
there is a large Extent of Grafs-land, like the richeft of our Meadows,: that 
River rolls its rapid Current through it, and, on the Banks, grow innumera- 
ble Pionies, drooping their double and luxuriant Heads toward the Water. 
This was one of them : the Leaves are in nothing different from the common 
Piony, nor the Flower, except irl Elegance.- 
We fee double Flowers in our own Meadows : the Lady-fmock and theMarfh- 
marygold are Inftances. So far Europe mimicks the Garden Culture in her Wild- 
nefs j but the Luxuriance of a vaft proliferous Flower, in abfolute free Nature, 
demands a warmer Sun j and feems to claim a Place as Angular as that where 
it was found; an European Meadow under an African Heat. Gardeners 
produce, or more properly Nature, exuberant under their Afliftance, fends up 
fometimes proliferous Anemones, Ranunculus’s, Rofes, and fome other Kinds : 
but even our extream Art has never (hewn a Flower of this enormous Size, 
fo well fed, that another could rife from its Centre. 
Proliferous Flowers, in general, have been fuppos’d to arife from a Continuation 
of the Style of one into another Flower ; it is the Doilrine of the Linn^ean 
School ; but it is not univerlal in the School of Nature. The Ranunculus is 
render’d proliferous by a Continuation of the Receptacle into a Stalk, or more 
properly by the Stalk afluming the Place of a Receptacle of Seeds, and pulhing 
itfelf farther. In this, if the Encreafe depended on the Stigmata, for there is no 
Style, there muft two of thefe Secondary Flowers have rifen from the Centre 
of the Fir ft, for the Piony has two Rudiments of CapAiles. But there was 
Nothing of it in the prefent Inftance. 
The Summit of the natural Stalk form’d a proper Receptacle, as is ufual in 
this Flower ; but inftead of a double Rudiment of a Seed-veflTel rifing from the 
Head of this, the Receptacle became Amply extended in Length, the P etals oc- 
cupy ’d fb much of it as is ufual, and that which grew out farther, was cover’d 
with the fame green Rind as the proper Stalk ; and was to all Intents and Pur- 
pofes a real Stalk, fupporting on its Head another Flower. 
The claffical Character of the Piony cannot be read in the double Flower : 
but in the Single, a Multitude of Filaments growing from a Receptacle, not 
from a Cup or Petal, ftiew it one of the P olyandria. 
'BOH E A 
