Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12.djvu/282

250 have described Pæonies with precision after Linné, and their descriptions are excellent as far as they go; but the accession of new species lately discovered, and as yet but imperfectly described, together with the necessity of a thorough revision of those that were formerly known, rendered some attempt like the present requisite. If it shall be found to possess any merit, it is not to me, but to my much esteemed friend Joseph Sabine, Esq. F. R.S., &c. that it is to be ascribed: that gentleman for several years has collected with indefatigable pains all the Pæonies he could discover both from public and private gardens. Having at length assembled upwards of seventy plants under different names in his garden at North Mimms, he began, by comparing them together, to produce order out of confusion. It was at his particular invitation that I first attempted to describe them; and it has been by the assistance of his information that I have been enabled to proceed in the undertaking. I have, therefore, to avoid the necessity for reiterated acknowledgements, taken the liberty of employing the plural number, as including him, in the composition of the following account.

I do not enter into any examination of the general character, further than to repeat what has been hinted by others; that the genus properly belongs to Polyandria Trigynia, not only because the species more generally exhibit three pistilla than any other number, but also because this is its most natural position: it should stand, in my opinion, between Aconitum and Homalium in the factitious arrangement. The germina tomentosa, will now be expunged from the natural character, there being two species with smooth germens.

The descriptions are made out from an actual examination of each living plant; and it affords no small satisfaction to say, that very few if any of the plants taken notice of up to the present time remain unaccounted for: a few, indeed, which appear to be questionable,