The sample from which our drawing has been made, is 
the first produce of a plant recently received from China by 
Sir Abraham Hume, who had the goodness to send it 
from Wormleybury. It does not seem to be precisely 
either of the two double varieties, known in our gardens by 
the denominations of var. rosea fl. pl. and var. banksia ft. 
pl. Yet Mr. Sabine, who has attended very particularly to 
the variation of all the species of Peony, appears to be con- 
vinced that its difference from banksia consists merely in 
its being a weaker specimen. 
This beautiful and most desirable shrub is native of 
China, and was obtained, like the greater proportion of 
the more valuable ornaments of our gardens, by the care 
of Sir Joseph Banks, who had sent out proper instructions 
for the purpose. The first living plant reached England 
in 1794; several had been previously received, but none 
had survived the passage. In China, where the florist is 
said to have a list of two hundred and forty varieties, the 
plants, we are told, sometimes attain the height of from 
eight to ten feet. To have it in perfection in our climate, 
it should be planted in the border of the conservatory; but 
it will also do well in the open ground, if protected during 
the period of its bloom by a glass case. 
Stem round, branching, about an inch in diameter, 
smooth. Young branches leafy; others leafless. Leaves 
spreading, biternately or bipinnately divided, segments oval 
or oblong, lower ones entire, uppermost threelobed, of a 
deep green at the upper side and smooth, at the under glau- 
cous and furred with small scattered hairs. Sowers ter- 
minal, large, solitary, sweet-scented: floral leaves two by 
way of involucre immediately under the flower, 2-3-parted, 
with oblong and generally reflectent lobes. Calyx of five 
leaflets. Petals from five to ten or sometimes many more, 
large, orbicular often indented at the border. 
It does not yet appear to be decided whether (G), the 
plant with large white semi-double flowers, known by the 
title of papaveracea, is specifically distinct from (~) or not. 
We shall subjoin the translation of the distinctive charac- 
teristics of each as given by M. Decandolle, by whom the 
two are recorded provisionally, as mutual varieties. 
In («) the fleshy cup in which the bases of the ger- 
mens are contained, is indented at the top: the germens 
