PiEO'NIA MOUTA'N. Papaveracea. 
POPPY-FLOWERED TREE P^ONY. 
Class. Order. 
POLYANDRIA. DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
RANUNC0LACEA5. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
China. 
3 feet. 
May, June. 
Perennial. 
in 1789. 
No. 241. 
The derivation of Paeonia is from the name of 
Paeon, the physician, whom Homer records as having 
cured Pluto with this herb, when he was wounded 
by Hercules. Moutan is the Chinese name. 
The historical particulars of this magnificent plant 
must, for the present, be deferred, to admit an ex- 
plicit notice of a new mode of propagation. 
In February, select any of the stems of the Paeonia 
Moutan, or all may be used, and at the distance of 
half an inch from the centre of each bud, both above 
and below it, cut out entirely round the stem, a small 
ring of the bark, rather more than the sixteenth of 
an inch wide, in the manner of common ringing, as 
practised on fruit trees. Thus every bud will occupy 
an inch of the stem, where the direct continuation 
of its bark is obstructed, both above and below, by 
the rings which have been cut out of it. The stems 
so prepared, are then to be laid horizontally about 
three inches beneath the soil, leaving only the lead- 
ing bud at the end of each branch, above the sur- 
face. In six months every bud will have made a vi- 
gorous shoot, and, in general, will have two radical 
fibres at its base. In August, remove the soil from 
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