Anderson’s successor as monographer of the genus Paeonia in gardens was Richard Irwin Lynch (1850-1924), a Kew-trained gardener from 1879 to 1919 Curator of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. He immensely enriched the garden's stock of plants and became particularly interested in peonies. His study of these in a living state enabled him to publish “A new classification of the genus Paeonia” in Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London 12: 428-445 (November 1890). This was a valuable synopsis for horticultural use but added nothing to knowledge of the Balkan peonies, of which the only one then introduced was P. peregrina, described by Lynch as P. officinalis var. lobata and attributed to Portugal.

From the book:

Peonies of Greece

A taxonomic and historical Survey of the Genus Paeonia in Greece

William T. Stearn and Peter H. Davis