Few flowers have been the victims of more extraordinary caprice than these most splendid ornaments of our gardens. Long known by report and Chinese drawings, their beauty was disbelieved, till at length, some seventy years ago, the first individual of the genus made its appearance in Europe. Its hardihood once established, it bore a high price, and was the pride of the most notable horticulturists. Some twenty years later arrived another variety, P. Moutan papaveracea, which was equally and justly cherished.

Still the Chinese reports of Moutans of various colors were treated with incredulity, those already received being obviously very similar in color, differing, in fact, little more than double and single varieties of the same plant might be expected to do. When China was opened to our researches, no plants were looked for with greater curiosity than the almost fabulous. Moutans. At last, but not till even his patience had experienced some trial and disappointment, Robert Fortune saw, verified, and secured the many colored Moutans which Chinese papers, seventy or eighty years before, had faithfully depicted to our incredulous eyes. The lilacs, the salmon-colored, the sulphur-colored, the whites, the rich reds, were secured, transmitted to England, and in due time met our astonished eyes. But where are they now? and in how many gardens are they to be seen ? To watchful eyes they displayed their beauties imperfectly at Chiswick; still more imperfectly, I suspect, at Standish & Noble's, at Bagshot, for on visiting them (a little too late in the season, I must allow) they showed sorry remnants of indifferent flowers.

Nevertheless there exist few flowers which can at all compete with them in beauty. They may occasionally be seen in favorable situations with from one hundred to three hundred flowers upon them open at once, each seven to nine inches in diameter. I speak, of course, of the old varieties, as no large plants of the new ones yet exist, though there is not the slightest reason why they should not, except ignorance and carelessness.

A great admirer myself of Moutans, I wish to incite others to cultivate them, and therefore gladly detail my experience of their growth.

The first and great mistake is to imagine they like a light soil. No soil is too strong for them, provided it is well drained and well manured. The soil which will grow hops, wheat, beans, or melons is the only soil in which they attain perfection. Of manure they are perfect gluttons. I give moderate-sized plants a bushel of sheep dung per annum as a top-dressing, when I wish to have them in perfection. They moreover require a good deal of judicious pruning. If the branches are allowed to get too thick, small flowers are the consequence, and they will dwindle at last on old plants till they are little bigger than Gum-Cistus flowers. I have seen some of the earliest propagated plants of P. papaveracea, now upwards of forty years old, which, although large plants, present but a shabby appearance, and produce miserably small flowers.

Plants from four to five feet in diameter, when out of leaf, are large enough for all ordinary purposes; these will be between seven and eight feet in diameter when in flower, and produce from one hundred to one hundred and twenty flowers, and they may be grown to this size and well furnished in about six or seven years. I find that the ripened shoots with me vary from six to ten inches in length, eight being the ordinary growth.

I have never known the shoots injured by spring frosts but once in the last twelve years. Whenever that is the case, they should be immediately cut back to the first unopened bud, which will grow and flower, though the flowers thus produced are rather smaller than those produced by the first growth. However, as a preventive against this accident, I watch the Montana in the early spring, and if I find the fruit buds getting so forward as to ran risk of injury, I prune them all off, cutting the plant back to the second or even the third bud. This insures a safe bloom a little later than the natural season.

Apart from this pruning, I generally cut the plants back very much, as Black Currants are pruned, immediately upon the fall of the leaf, leaving from four to six inches of wood, according to the desired size of the plant; but in this pruning regard must be had in unfavorable situations to the possible necessity of a second pruning.

With respect to situation, it must be confessed that all the low grounds of the valley of London are unfavorable to this plant. At Hampstead or Norwood, or, in fact, on any rising ground where vegetation is somewhat retarded, it will be found in greatest beauty. Light soils are unfavorable to it, especially sandy peat. It appears to do best in an open airy situation, sheltered from violent wind, and not exposed to extreme sun; the north side of a dwarf wall suits it perfectly. It should never receive any protection, except an awning when in flower, which will tend to prolong its beauty; but I must confess I prefer it perfectly exposed.

Many of the new varieties have flowered with me; all appear quite as hardy as the old ones, but there is some difference in their earliness, and, as far as I can at present judge, great difference in their habits of growth. Some appear much more compact and dwarf than the old varieties, whilst some, on the contrary, appear to be much more erect, and probably of larger growth.

Nothing would be more gorgeous than a Moutan garden, in which beds of about four feet square were devoted to each single plant. Even when out of flower, few plants surpass them in beauty and foliage. - J. R., in Gardener's Chronicle.