PEONY.

PEONIA.

RANUNCULACEA,

POLYANDRIA DIGYNIA.

From Pæon, an eminent physician of antiquity. It is also a name given both to Apollo and to Esculapius.-French, la pivoine; pione: in the village dialect, herbe de mallet; flor de mallet.—Italian, rosa de' monti [mountain rose].

THE Peony, from the nature of its roots, requires very deep pots. There are many and beautiful varieties. The White-flowered Peony is a native of Siberia: it is a handsome flower, with the scent of the Narcissus.

The Daurians boil the roots in their broth, and grind the seeds to put into their tea: they call it Dschina.

The Common Peony is purple or red: there are single and double flowers. It is a native of many parts of Europe, of Mount Ida, China, and Japan. A variety which Miller calls the Foreign, Gerarde calls Turkish, and says it originally came from Constantinople. The Portugal variety is a single flower, but very sweet: this requires a lighter soil and a warmer situation than the other kinds. Although the Peony is better adapted for the open ground, it is too beautiful to be dispensed with, where room can be allowed: the Jagged kind is the least fit for pots, and by far the least desirable.

The immense crimson flower of the Double-red Peony is scarcely more magnificent than its luxuriant foliage.

They may be increased by parting the roots, observing to preserve a bud on the crown of each offset, and not to divide them very small: they should be planted three inches deep. It is a hardy plant, and will grow in any soil or situation. They should be kept moderately moist. The Common Peony flowers in May; the White Peony a month later.

PASSIFLOREA.

PASSION-FLOWER.

PASSIFLORA.

GYNANDRIA PENTANDRIA.

The Passion-flower derives its name from an idea, that all the instruments of Christ's passion are represented in it.-French, le grenadille; fleur de la passion.—Italian, granadiglia; fiore della passione.

MOST of the Passion-flowers are natives of the hottest parts of America, and require a stove in this country. It is a beautiful genus. The rose-coloured Passion-flower is a native of Virginia, and is the species which was first known in Europe. It has since been in great measure superseded by the blue Passion-flower, which is hardy enough to flower in the open air, and makes an elegant tapestry for an unsightly wall. The leaves of this, in the autumn, are of the most brilliant crimson; and, when the sun is shining upon them, seem to transport one to the gardens of Pluto.

The Rose-coloured, however, is better adapted for pots; and, if sheltered from frost, will thrive without artificial heat. In mild weather it may be allowed fresh air, and in the summer will enjoy a full exposure to it. The flowers are purple and white; very handsome, and sweet, but very short-lived; opening in the morning, and fading in the evening.

The fruit is about the size of an Orlean-plumb: when ripe, it is of a pale orange-colour, and encloses many rough seeds, lying in a sweet pulp. The fruit of some kinds is eatable, and in the West Indies much esteemed. It varies in size from that of an olive to that of a large melon.

The fruit of the Laurel-leaved Passion-flower, or Waterlemon, contains a sweet and tasteful juice, which is extremely fragrant. The West Indians suck this juice through a hole in the rind. The French call this species

pomme de liane [bindweed apple], and English Honey

suckle.

The Passion-flower should be raised in a hot-bed; and should be housed in October, carefully screening it from frost, but admitting air in mild weather. In summer, the earth must be kept tolerably moist, but water must be given very sparingly in winter.

PERWINKLE.

VINCA.

VINCEÆ.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

French, pervenche; pucellage; violette des sorciers [magician's violet]; vence.—Italian, pervinca; centocchio [hundred eyes].

THE Perwinkle is a lovely plant: its blue flowers are in bloom all the summer, and its fine glossy green leaves, like large Myrtle-leaves, flourish through the winter. It spreads so fast, and in consequence requires so much room, that it is seldom grown in pots; but it may be preserved very well in that manner, if room can be allowed for it. In a moist soil, and enjoying the morning sun, it thrives and flowers best.

The Madagascar Perwinkle is a beautiful plant, with an upright stem, three or four feet high: the flowers are crimson or peach-coloured on the upper surface, and a pale flesh-colour on the under: it varies with a white flower, having a purple eye. This plant is usually kept in the stove, but the temperature of a warm inhabited room will well. Unless the summer prove preserve it very warm and fine, it must not be set abroad even then; for, if exposed to much wet or cold, it will soon perish. Very little water will suffice this plant.

Chaucer repeatedly mentions the Perwinkle: it makes one of the ornaments of the God of Love:

"His garment was every dele
Ipurt-raied, and wrought with floures,
By divers medeling of coloures;
Floures there were of many gise
Iset by compace in a sise;

There lacked no floure to my dome,

Ne not so moche as floure of brome,
Ne violet, ne eke pervinke,

Ne floure none that men can on thinke;

And many a rose lefe full long
Was intermedlid there emong;

And also on his hedde was set

Of roses redde a chapilet."

THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE.

Again in the same poem, the poet, in describing a garden where flowers of all seasons are met together, gives a place to the Perwinkle :

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There sprange the violet al newe,

And fresh pervinke, rich of hewe,
And flouris yelowe, white, and rede;
Suche plente grewe there ner in mede:
Ful gaie was all the grounde and queint,
And poudrid as men had it peint,

With many a freshe and sondry floure,
That castin up ful gode savour."

Rousseau has, to his admirers, given the Perwinkle a double interest. He tells us, that walking with Madame Waren, she suddenly exclaimed, "There is the Perwinkle yet in flower." Being too short-sighted to see the plant on the earth without stooping, he had never observed the Perwinkle: he gave it a passing glance, and saw it no more for thirty years. At the end of that period, as he was walking with a friend," having then begun," he says, "to herborise a little, in looking among the bushes by the way, I uttered a cry of joy: 'Ah, there is the Perwinkle!' and it was so." He gives this as an instance of the vivid recollection he had of every incident occurring at a particular period of his life. The incident is so natural, and told with so much simplicity, that, trifling as it

is, it cannot fail to interest; especially as the Perwinkle is in France esteemed as the emblem of sincere friendship, in their mystic language of nosegays, when sent as presents between lovers and friends. The country people in Italy make garlands of it for their dead infants, for which reason they call it fior di morto [death's flower].

PHILLYREA.

CASSINE CAPENSIS.

RHAMNEE.

PENTANDRIA TRYGYNIA.

THIS is an evergreen shrub, bearing white blossoms, which blow in July or August. It should be housed in September, and placed abroad again in May. In the open ground it will thrive well without shelter; and Evelyn says, "is as hardy as the Holly itself." It must be sparingly watered.

This shrub is very similar to the Alaternus, from which it may be distinguished by the position of the leaves; which are opposite on the Phillyrea, alternate in the Ala

ternus.

The Alaternus is not well adapted for pots, on account of its far-spreading roots; or it would be particularly desirable to a lover of plants, as being one which the tasteful Evelyn prided himself upon bringing into proper notice.

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POLEMONIACEE.

PHLOX.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Called also Lychnidea.

THESE plants are chiefly North American, and most of them tolerably hardy. They are small, the blossoms pur