28 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
The single blossom peonies have a peculiarly fragile beauty 
HWA WANG—KING OF FLOWERS 
As Eleven Centuries of Fame Have Proved the Peony to Be—If Your Garden Does 
Not Contain It, Here Is That Which Will Convince You 
GRACE TABOR 
N EARLY two hundred and fifty years ago the historian 
of an expedition into China which had been made thir¬ 
teen years earlier, had this to say: 
“In the province of Suchue, near to Ching King, grows a 
certain flower called Meutang, in high esteem amongst them, 
and therefore called ‘King of Flowers.’ It differs very little 
in quality from the European rose, but is much larger and 
spreads its leaves further abroad. It far surpasses the rose in 
beauty, but falls short in richness of scent; it has not thorns or 
prickles, is generally of a white color, mingled with a little 
purple, yet there are some that are yellow and red. This flower 
grows upon a bush, and is carefully cherished and planted in 
all gardens belonging to the Grandees for one of the most 
choice flowers.” 
The Peony’s Great 
Antiquity 
For more than eleven cen¬ 
turies, too, this flower has 
been so cherished and planted 
—and who can say how much 
longer? Records of the year 
corresponding to 536 of our 
Christian era tell of the Sho 
Yo and the Mow Tan — the 
latter even then called “Hwa 
Wang” (King of Flowers) 
just as the former were 
named “Hwa Seang” (the 
King’s Ministers) inasmuch 
as they were a little less beau¬ 
tiful and decidedly more com¬ 
mon than the others. 
So clouded by the mists of antiquity is the origin of the 
regal Meutang—the great tree peony of China—that no one 
has been able to determine whether or not it ever grew wild 
in the mountain fastnesses of the somnolent empire. Some 
believe that its magnificence came gradually to be, as the re¬ 
sult of skilful handling of the common wild form, and indi¬ 
cations point both ways, as a matter of fact, so it is doubtful 
if the truth will ever be known. Certainly Mow Tan—which 
you will have recognized, I am sure, as the Pceonia moutan of 
modern nomenclature—is never found now except in gardens, 
and never has been found elsewhere since the records of ex¬ 
ploration have been kept. 
I have spoken of the Chinese Sho Yo and Mow Tan first 
because of the unbroken 
chain of actual record con¬ 
cerning them, and because it 
is to Sho Yo—considered by 
the Orientals less splendid 
than the tree form, although 
its name does mean “most 
beautiful” — that we are in¬ 
debted for a vast number of 
the finest modern varieties. 
Sho Yo is the herbaceous 
species, christened by our 
botanists Pceonia albiflora — 
the medicinal plant of the 
Chinese. It is more than a 
medicine, however, for to this 
day its roots are used as a 
food by the Tartars. That we 
find it hardy in our severest 
sections is not remarkable, for 
The double forms are 
showier and generally last 
longer than the single sorts 
La Tulipe is a flesh pink 
shading to white, with ear- 
mine-tipped center petals 
