Volume 7 — PLATE CCCCXLVIII.

PÆONIA SUFFRUTICOSA; Var. flore purpureo.

Shrubby Pæony; Purple-flowered Variety.

CLASS XIII. ORDER V.

POLYANDRIA PENTAGYNIA. Many Chives. Five Pointals.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx 5-phyllus. Petala 5. Styli 0. Capsulæ polyspermæ.

Cup 5-leaved. Petals 5. Pointal none. Capsules many-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Pæonia caule suffruticoso, tripedali, ramoso: folia alternatim bipinnata, pedalia et ultra, bifida et trifida, subtus glauca: petiolis longis, canaliculatis, amplexicaulibus: floribus semi-duplicibus, purpureis, splendentibus.

Pæony with a shrubby stem, three feet high, and branching: leaves alternately two-winged, a foot or more in length, two-and three-cleft, glaucous beneath; the petioles are long, channelled, and embracing the stem: flowers semi-double, purple, and very splendid.

This elegant plant is the purple variety mentioned in our last Vol. Pl. 373. and flowered at the same time, with completely double flowers, and so equal in point of beauty, that we hesitated some time before we could determine to which we should give the preference. But had we seen the purple one in its present semi-double state, it would undoubtedly have claimed precedence, as well from its preserved botanic character, as its superior beauty. The singular versatility of these plants we were entirely unacquainted with when we figured the rose-coloured one; as, since that period, we have seen them in bloom with single flowers, the following year with double ones; and again the year after we found this purple one in the semi-double state which our figure represents, the plant then bearing five-and-twenty flowers in full perfection, forming a coup-d’œil superior to any shrub we have ever seen.