When Mr.,Fortune visited China! on the service of the Horticultural Society, the .acquisition of new Montana was one of the first objects to which he attended. In his Wanderings, he mentions the beauty of the varieties seen by him at Shanghai; how he heard ,of yellow, .and purple, and blue sorts; and at one time saw lilacs and purples, some Nearly black; at another, dark purples, lilacs, and deep red. Afterwards, having discovered that these things came from a place only six or eight miles from Shanghai, Mr. Fortune tells as that he proceeded there daily during the time the different plants were coming into bloom, and secured some most striking and beautiful kinds. The name Moutan seems to be an alteration of the word Botan, the usual name of these plants in Japan, as we are told by Kaempfer. The Japanese seem to think the Moutan and Paeony distinct .genera. It is to be suspected that more species than one is comprehended under the common name of Tree Peony, even although, as is probable, the Poppy Moutan (P. papaveracea) should be a mere variety of the common kind; for some of the Japanese kinds are said to form rapidly a woody stem eight or ten feet high - a stature which the common Montana would only gain after many years in even favorable climates.

The Chinese and Japanese are said to reckon their varieties of Moutans by hundreds, as we do our roses. It is not improbable (now that the single and very slightly double kinds are beginning to establish themselves in Europe), that we, too, shall have the same dominion over them as over camellias and chrysanthemums.