20 
H ^ O I C P I o n’7 
P^ON. A PROLIFER A. 
T his elegant PWer, which has fo much the afpeft of n ru r 
into my hands the produce of abfolutcly favage nature P 
of the northern Europe, produce that fimple Male Piony and fome parts 
in the courfe of many ages, rais’d the vaft double Flower of the gardeners have, 
fomc little loofe and cafual variegation in the Petals, has b ^ 
we behold it, ftrip’d like a Carnation and proliferous ; onl^Bo 
of the other : and this from fimple nature. Perhaps it is th 
been, or can be produc’d of her luxuriance. I have nam’d ‘"^“nce that has 
common nature ; and reminds us of what is called the hero’ 7 '«nfcends 
in painting. 
The country whence it came was Africa ; a Quarter of rb. l t, r 
not before receiv’d this Plant : but tho’ an African it is t u 
fands. Some few miles up the river Senegal there 'is a 1 ^bitant of the parch’d 
richeft of our meadows : that river rolls its rapid current 7 hro 7 h"' gfafs-land, like the 
grow innumerable Pionies, drooping their double and luxurianf 
This was one of them : the Leaves are in nothing different from th7 ' 
the Flower, except in elegance. common Piony j nor 
marT;!?a“cel: Ir^ 
the luxuriance of a vaft proliferous Flower, in ubfolu^feTature ’V’"' 
fun; and feems to claim a place as fingular as that whemr;: LnT’tpVR:™^^ 
meadow under an African heat. Gardeners produce nr 7 . “n European 
«d o.h„ kind.: b.. „„ e„„.™ L k.. „„„ Z„ ^ 0 “ “ 1 '; ’ 
mous hze, fo well fed, that another could rife from its centre. 
Styk ofor' f '"rtf “ continuation of the 
tion of the Re f 7 Ranunculus is render’d proliferous by a continua- 
Rere r I “ P “ ® ® ^ore properly by the Stalk affuming the place of a 
the centr’e of tb "f a 7 ! "'fen from 
thing of -r ■ 7 R'^ti'^ents of Capfules. But there was no- 
_ g ot It in the prefent inftance. 
h« in(l77'"7 tttttural Stalk form’d a proper Receptacle, as is ufual in this Flower ; 
tcptacle b ° ^ “nble Rudiment of a Seed-veffel rifing from the Head of this, the Re- 
“td that vvF 7^ P’tnply extended in length, the Petals occupy ’d fo much of it as is ufual, 
®"d Was to 'll P^tthcr, was cover’d with the fame green Rind as the proper Stalk j 
0 R intents and purpofes a real Stalk, fupporting on its Head another Flower. 
lingU charaifter of the Piony cannot be read in the double Flower : but in the 
- a multitude of Filaments - ^ - 
°'>e of the Polyandria. 
ftew it 
growing from a Receptacle, not from a Cup or Petal, 
P^onia fbliolis oblongis prolifcra. 
G 
