12. P.Wittmanniana Hartw. ex Lindl. var. macrophylla (Albow) Busch ex Grossheim, Fl. Kavkaza, 2, 91 (1930); F.C. Stern in Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. 68, 126 (1943). Syn. P.Wittmanniana subspP.macrophylla (Albow) Busch, I.e. 224 (1903).P.Wittmanniana forma macrophylla (Albow) Busch in Kusnezow, Busch & Fomin, Mat. Fl. Caw. Crit. 3, iii. 13 (1901). P.corallina var. Wittmanniana f. macrophylla Albow, Prodr. Fl. Colchicas {Trud. Tiflis Bot. Soda, 1, Suppl.), 15 (1895). P.macrophylla (Albow) Lomakin in Trud. Tiflis Bot. Sada, 2, 282 (1897) ; Komarov, Fl. U.R.S.S. 7, 30 (1937).

Description. Differs from P.Wittmanniana by the larger leaflets and glabrous carpels.

Distribution. western caucasus : province of Abkhazia, Mount Tchakvis above village of Agava, 800-1000 metres, Albow 161 (K), 162 (L).

Paeonia Wittmanniana var. macrophylla differs from P.Wittmanniana in possessing very large leaflets measuring up to 24 cm. long by 15 cm. wide, whereas the average leaflets on a lower leaf of P.Wittmanniana measure up to 17 cm. long by 9-5 cm. wide. The original description was made by Albow (I.e.), who said this paeony differed from all other paeonies by the very large shining leaves—the dimensions being given as 15-24 cm. long and (10)-12-16.5 cm. wide with large white (?) expanded petals and carpels quite glabrous. Albow's specimen in the Kew Herbarium and a specimen from the Leningrad Herbarium—the only wild specimens to be founds—have neither flowers nor fruit. Lomakin (I.e.) says " the carpels . . . puberulous or glabrous " and in the Flora U.R.S.S. (I.e.) the petals are described as particularly large and the fruits glabrous.

A paeony under the name of P.macrophylla was received at Highdown from the Tiflis Botanical Garden, via Kew. This has very large leaflets, 22 cm. long by 11-5 cm. wide, but in all other respects it resembles P.Wittmanniana and has tomentose carpels.

P.Wittmanniana var. macrophylla has been recorded only from the most southerly station of P.Wittmanniana var. nudicarpa at the western end of the Caucasus range ; it would appear to be a geographical form of P.Wittmanniana var. nudicarpa confined to that area. [end page 61]