In the present paper 8 species with 15 populations of the genus Paeonia L. (if P.
papaveracea and P. japonica are recognised as species) were collected from Sichuan, Shaanxi
and Hebei provinces (see the Appendix for detail of the materials). The micrographs of their
somatic metaphase (also Mii in the case of P.veitchii) are shown in Plates 1-4, the karyo-
type formulae, ranges of chromosome length and classification of karyotypes according to Steb-
bins (1971) are shown in Table 5: the idiograms in Figs. 1-2, and the parameters of chromo-
somes in Table 1-4. The essential points are mentioned as follows:
(1) Chromosomes of the various species in the section Modan have so far been examined
and they are all diploid, the two species in the section Onaepia are also diploid, and thus
tetraploids exist only in the section Paeonia.
(2) Chromosomes in the genus Paeonia are relatively stable except for the differentiation
of ploidy. The karyotypes (Table 1-4) show no differences among different taxa in Sect.
Modan and the same can also be said about the taxa in Sect. Paeonia (Table 1). Not only
are the karyotypes very similar, but also among the members within either section have the
same parameters of chromosomes, and, differences, if occur, are not statistically significant.
Between the two sections, however, the situation is different. The arm ratios of the first pairs of
chromosomes in Sect. Modan are 1.53, 1.52 and 1.48 (Table 1), but those in Sect. Paeonia
are 1.12-1.28 (Table 2-4), 95% confidence limits are 1.46-1.60 for the section Modan and
1.07-1.28 (1.21-1.35 only for PB85078) for the section Paeonia, not overlapping, which indi-
cates that the two sections have differentiated in respect of the first pairs of chromosomes.
(3)The population PB85024, which belongs to the P. obovata complex, has a karyotype of
2B (stebbins, 1971), which is a new one in the genus Paeonia. This karyotype is a stable one,
for several individuals in the population are uniform in this respect, which shows that Steb-
bins’ (1971) generalization that all the species in Paeonia have 2A does not hold true.
(4) Three populations of P. obovata complex studied in this work from Sichuan and
Shaanxi are all tetraploids, and one from Hebei is a diploid. From the present work and
the previcus reports, the materials from Japan and Korea, no matter whether flowers are pink
or white, are diploids, those from Heilongjiang Province (with both pink and white flowers)
(Liu Ming-yuan, personal communication) and from Heibei Province (with pink flowers)
in China are also diploids, the one from Sakhalin (pink flowers) is tetraploid, those from
Priamur of the Soviet Union are a tetraploid (with white flowers) and a diploid (with pink
flowers), and those from Shaanxi (the Qinling Range) and western Sichuan (with both pink
and white flowers) are all tetraploids. As far as we have now known, ploidy in this parti-
cular complex is correlated with the geographical distribution: diploids are found in the cen-
tral part, tetraploids occur in the northern limits, and in the south letraploids are the only
cytotype.
(5) The materials of P. mairei from western Sichuan and Shaanxi (the Qinling Range)
are found all to be tetraploids, which shows that two cytotypes, diploid and tetraploid, exist in
this species, but the geographical distribution pattern of these two cytotypes is to be revealed
in the future investigation.
