PAEONIA 
155 
Exsiccata : — Reichenbach, 1283; Thielens et Devos, ii, 103. 
Perennial, rhizomatous herb. Shoot about 3 dm. high. Stem-leaves 2-ternate or 3-ternate ; leaflets 
stalked, ovate, deeply cordate at the base, margin spinulose-serrate, apex acute to acuminate. In- 
florescence erect. Peduncles and pedicels hairy-glandular. Flowers about 1 cm. in diameter ; May. 
Sepals greenish. Petals reddish, smaller than the sepals. Seeds large, deep reddish in colour, 
raphe swollen. 
Naturalised in Bingley Woods, West Riding of Yorkshire; in Westmorland; on Carrick Fell and Skiddaw, 
in Cumberland; at Mugdoch Castle, Glasgow; and at Cleish Castle, Kinross-shire. 
Naturalised in Germany, Belgium, and France ; indigenous in east-central and south-eastern Europe. 
Family 6. "PAEONIACEAE 
Paeoniaceae 1 Worsdell in Journ. Bot. xlvi, 1 16 (1908); in Ann. Bot. xxii, 663(1908); descr. Lat. nulla; 
Paeoni'eae [Bernhardi in Linnaea viii, 452 (1833) emend, (excl. Caltha and Actaea) ; Bentham and Hooker Gen. 
PI. i, 3 and 10 (1862); Prantl in Pflanzenfam. iii, pt. 2, 54 (1891). 
Undershrubs or perennial herbs. Leaves exstipulate, alternate, rather thick. Bracts passing 
gradually into the sepals. Flowers dichlamydeous. Sepals spirally arranged, herbaceous, 1 — 2 outer 
ones bracteoid. Petals large and strong, spirally arranged. Stamens 00 , spirally arranged. Carpels 
2 — 5, in a single whorl, multiovulate, thick, joined to the disc. Fruit a group of follicles. Seeds 
large, red or black ; endosperm copious, oily. 
Worsdell {Journ. Bot. xlvi, 114 — 116 (1908); Ann. Bot. xxii, 651 — 682 (1908)) proposed to take Paeonia out of Ranun- 
culaceae and place it in a monotypic family, the Paeoniaceae. In particular, he shows that the anatomy of Paeonia differs 
from that of the rest of the Ranunculaceae. He concludes that “the characters of Paeonia, apart from those of the vascular 
anatomy, are clearly at all points intermediate between those of Ranunculaceae on the one hand, and those of Magnoliaceae 
and Calycanthaceae on the other.” Paeonia and Actaea (and the allied genera) being taken out of the Ranunculaceae, that 
family becomes a very natural group, the Ranunculaceae verae of de Candolle ( Syst . Nat. i, 129 (1818)). 
Only genus : — " Paeonia. 
Genus 1. * Paeonia 
Paeonia [Tournefort Inst. 273, t. 146(1700);] L. Sp. PI. 530 (1753) et Gen. PI. ed. 5, 235 (1754); Prantl 
op. cit. 54 et 55 (1891). 
Perennial shrubs or herbs. Laminae compound, leaflets broad. Sepals 5, unequal in size, 
green, persistent. Petals 5 — 10, usually about 5, without nectary. Stamens 00 , hemiperigynous ; 
anthers extrorse, on a hypogynous disc. Carpels 2 — 5, surrounded by a disc. Follicles often very 
pubescent. 
1 5 species ; temperate northern hemisphere. 
I. "PAEONIA MASCULA. Paeony. Plate 166 
Paeonia mas Gerard Herball 830 (1597); P. simplex latiore folio trifido Morison Plant. Hist, iii, 454, t. 1 
(sect. 12), fig. 1 (1699). 
Paeonia mascula Miller Card. Diet. ed. 8, no. 1 (1768); P. officmalis var. mascula L. Sp. PI. 530 
( 1 753 ) J P- corallina Retzius Observ. iii, 34 (1783); Smith Eng. Bot. no. 1513 (1805); Syme Eng. Bot. i, 68 
(1863); P. corallina race corallina Rouy et Foucaud FI. France i, 14 (1893). 
leones: — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 1513, as P. corallina-, Reichenbach Icon, iv, t. 128, fig. 4745, as P. corallina. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 166. Hort., origin Steep Holm, Somerset (G. C. D.). 
Exsiccata : — Huet et Pavilion {PI. Sic.), as P. corallina. 
Perennial. Root thick, with sessile large conical tubers. Shoot glabrous or nearly so, up to about 
a metre high. Ground leaves with long petioles ; laminae ternate, upper ones pinnate, rather glaucous 
beneath ; pinnae oval or elliptical, entire. Inflorescence solitary. Flowers about 8 — 10 cm. in diameter; 
late May. Sepals about 5 or 6, 1 or 2 resembling reduced leaflets. Petals crimson, 5 — 10. Stamens 00, 
filaments crimson, anthers yellow. Carpels 1 — 5, densely tomentose, stigmas recurved. Follicles large, 
tomentose, strongly divergent; pericarp thick, about 4 — 5 cm. long and i*6 — 1’8 broad. 
1 “ Herbae perennes vel frutices, caulibus ramosis. Folia alterna, ampla, pinnatim-dissecta vel decomposita, subcarnosa, 
exstipulata. Bracteae in sepala abeuntiae. Sepala seriatim inserta, herbacea, 1 — 2 extima bracteoidea. Petala 5 — 10, ampla, 
conspicua, 1 — 2 spiraliter inserta. Stamina 00 , 00 -seriatim inserta. Carpella 2 — 5, multiovulata, carnosa, folliculatim dehiscentia. 
Semina magna, saepe rubra; albumen carnosum, oleaginosum.” W. C. Worsdell, in litt. 
20 — 2 
