George Anderson

“ All the species hitherto known are confined to the northern hemisphere, and no one has yet been found in any part of America. They belong to cold climates. Some species indeed are indigenous in the south of Europe; but they grow upon elevated situations. They are, as far as has yet been tried, sufficiently hardy to stand our winter unprotected. ”

“ But even the error of this great man has on the present occasion proved beneficial to science, by repressing that prevailing propensity among botanists to increase too much the number of species: for no writer has since presumed to take up any of those rejected by him, without mature consideration and well-grounded proof.
Retzius, Pallas, and Murray are the principal botanists who have described Pæonies with precision after Linné, and their descriptions are excellent as far as they go ”

“ The truth of this is confirmed by all our experience; for the seedling plants preserve uniformly, as far as we have observed, the habits and characters of their parents, But there is great difficulty in discovering sufficient marks of distinction between them; which, however, we ought not to presume in any case to be insurmountable, though we may have failed in overcoming it in some instances. ”