52 Rhodora [Marcu 
considered as “types” unless there is actual evidence that Linnaeus 
drew up his description wholly or in part from the preserved speci- 
men.! In the case of Oenothera biennis, especially, where nothing in 
the account given in the Species Plantarum is original to that work, 
no herbarium specimen can be interpreted as a type unless it is defi- 
nitely associable with the Hortus Cliffortianus. Mr. Gates himself 
states? that “ . . .the actual specimens in the British Museum. .. which 
are supposed to have served as the types for the Hortus Cliffortianus 
are not fully authenticated. "The handwriting is said not to be that 
of Linnaeus..." ete. Under the circumstances the best cóurse seems 
to be to accept as true Oenothera biennis the common plant of Holland 
which Professor de Vries has referred to under this name in his Muta- 
tionstheorie. A diagnosis of this plant follows. 
OENOTHERA BIENNIS L. Biennial. Mature rosettes large, some- 
times 65 cm. in diameter (smaller if forced to flower the first year). 
Outer leaves with petioles 9-10 cm. long and oblanceolate or oblong 
lanceolate blades, 20-24 em. long, 5.5-7.5 em. broad, gradually narrowed 
to the sinuate-dentate base, distantly and minutely repand-denticu- 
late toward the abruptly obtuse or acutish apex, with a sparse pubes- 
cence on both sides of short, sharp, arcuate hairs. Flowering plant 
about 7-10 dm. high, roughly pyramidal in outline, bearing cauline 
branches in all the lower axils, and flowers in all the upper axils of the 
main axis; branches with empty axils below and flowers above; stems 
and foliage green. Stem pubescence consisting of four types of hairs: 
I sharp-pointed, thick-walled granulose-roughened hairs from a 
tuberculate base (few); II similar but shorter hairs varying greatly 
in length, without a tuberculate base (the predominant type); III 
thin-walled hairs, round at the apex, of practically uniform diameter, 
or slightly clavate (few); and IV very small, ampulliform thin-walled 
hairs (mostly in the inflorescence). Lower stem leaves with blades 
about 16 cm. long, 4.5 cm. wide, lanceolate, acute, distantly denticu- 
late, tapering at the repand-dentate base to a petiole about 4 em. long. 
Uppermost stem leaves short-petioled, forming a gradual transition to 
the lower bracts, 10 cm. long, 3 em. wide. Lower leaves of the 
branches (subtending neither branches nor flowers) ovate, acute, 
5.5 em. long, 3 em. wide. Leaf-like lower bracts of both primary and 
secondary axes passing gradually to practically entire narrowly lanceo- 
late bracts about 25 mm. long and 4 mm. wide, (i: e., 24 times as long 
as the ovary at flowering time), clothed with hairs of type II above 
and types II and III below. Flowers of medium size. Ovary 10 mm. 
long. Hypanthium 35 mm. long, slender, expanding from a diameter 
1 In this connection see — 
Hitchcock, A. S.: Types of American Grasses. Cont. U. 8. Nat. Herb. xii (1908) 
p. 115. 
2Am. Nat., xlv (1911) p. 587. 
