Book  (2001)  Page(s) 382.  
 
Plant Introductions in the period 1800-1899
1826 Paeonia brownii American Wild Peony, western Peony. W. North America.

Book  (1917)  Page(s) 225-226.  
 
Brownii (Brown's). California and Northwest. This is the only species native to the Western Hemisphere. It blooms in June and July, often near banks of melting snow. The flowers are dull red or brown and are not attractive.

Book  (1907)  Page(s) 43.  
 
377. **BROWNII, (TYPE-SPECIES)
(1) **1839, Botanical Register Vol. 25.
(2) 1839, Gardener's Mag. p. 394.
(3) 1877, The Garden, Vol. 12, p. 379.
(4) 1877, The Gardener's Monthly, Vol. 19, p. 291.
(5) 1886, The Garden, Vol. 29, p. 606.
(6) 1890, Garden & Forest, Vol. 3, p. 356.
(7) 1894, The Garden, Vol. 46, p. 104.

Book  (1907)  Page(s) 3.  
 
Peonia Browni. Dougl. A Northwest American dwarf species, with glaucus foliage and dull, brownish-red flowers, borne on recurved stems.
 

Book  (1849)  Page(s) 499.  
 
P. Brownii (pronounce: Braun--) Dougl. Brown's peony. The Blue Mountains in North America. - Foliage smooth on both sides, almost grey-green, double trifoliate; leaflets semi-feathery, slashed, the incisions longitudinal, obtuse on the lower leaves. 5 seed pods, elongated, smooth, upright.

Magazine  (1842)  Page(s) 377.  
 
1. Trees and Shrubs raised from Mr. Douglas's Californian Seeds collected in 1831 and 1832, and now growing in the Arboretum of the Society, and more or less extensively distributed.

2. Ornamental herbaceous plants or annuals raised from the same collection, and more or less extensively distributed.
...Paeonia Brownii

Book  (1840)  Page(s) 41.  
 

P. Brownii (Dougl.): carpels 5, oblong, very glabrous, erect; leaves smooth on both sides, somewhat glaucous, biternate; leaflets ternately divided or pinnatifid, laciniate; laciniæ oblong, those of the lower leaves obtuse. Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 27.
“Near the confines of perpetual snow on the subalpine range of Mount Hood, N. W. America." Douglas in Hook. “East of the Blue Mountains of Oregon, not in subalpine situations,” Nuttall ! June-July.-Stem striate. Sepals very unequal, oval. Carpels very smooth, oblong, scarcely recurved at the apex. Hook.“ Petals reddish-purple, never fully expanding.” Nutt.

Magazine  (Jun 1839)  Page(s) plate 30.  Includes photo(s).
 
Paeonia Brownii. Douglas' Californian Paeony...
Onaepia. P. Brownii; herbacea, carpellis 5 glaberrimis erectis, foliis utrinque glabris biternatis, foliolis ternatim divisis pinnatifidisve laciniatis, sepalis subrotundia convexis petalis subrotundis coriaceis longioribus.
P. Brownii. Douglas in Hook. Fl. Bor.Amer. 27. Torrey and Gray Flora of North America, 1. 41.
Petala circiter sex, coriacea, subrotunda, sanguinea, margine lutea, sepala breviora. Discus carnosus, elevatus, lobatus. Folliculi 5, quorum pars tantum perfecta, coriacea, rugosa, Iaevia, obovata. Testa seminum sicca, nec succulenta.

This extremely rare and very curious plant was introduced several years ago by the Horticultural Society, to which it was sent by Mr. Douglas. It is a singular instance of a genus hitherto exclusively Asiatic or European, appearing in the New World under a form different from its ordinary state, and yet as it seems too similar to be separated. Since the discovery of this by Douglas, a second species has been found in Upper California by Nuttall. The two form a section of Paeonia, characterized by short leathery petals, a lobed fleshy disk, and a dry not succulent seed coat.
Douglas found it near the limits of perpetual snow, on the subalpine range of Mount Hood in North West America; according to Torrey and Gray it was met with by Nuttall east of the Blue Mountains of Oregon, not in subalpine situations.
It is a hardy perennial, with tuberous roots like those of the common Paeony, but much smaller; it grows little more than a foot high, and flowers about the middle of May. It may be increased like the other Paeonies, either by seeds or by division of the roots.
It seems rather difficult to keep, for the old roots sent home by Douglas, as well as all the young ones raised from seeds and given away by the Horticultural Society, have died, the only plant now alive being that in the Society's Garden, where it grows vigorously, planted in a mixture of silver sand, peat, and a small portion of loam, more than one-half of the whole mixture being sand. It is kept in a north aspect, where the sun only shines on the plant a few hours during the middle of the day in summer, and not at all in winter, and where the temperature is not subject to very great variation during summer. The plants which perished died chiefly during the hotter part of summer and autumn, when fully exposed to the sun. It seems necessary that they should be covered in winter with a hand glass to keep the roots rather dry.