584 THE PROBABLE ORIGIN OF OENOTHERA LAMARCKIANA SER. 



name it still bears, is represented by two large flowering specimens. 

 When 1 studied them in 1895, they were loose on their sheets and 

 bore together the no. 12, indicating that they corresponded with 

 no. 12 0. grandiflora of the Encyclopedic methodique, Botanique, by 

 Lamarck. 1) About 1900 they were fastened on new sheets and 

 the numbers have been lost.^) For convenience, I shall call these 

 specimens A and B, the former being represented by our pi. I, 

 while a photograph of B has been published by Davis.^) 



Unfortunately these two specimens do not belong to the same 

 elementary species, but the question as to which of them is to be 

 considered as the authentic specimen has been answered by all 

 authors in the same way, with the exception of Davis. According 

 to the general agreement A (pi. I) is the type of the species. 

 Davis has not seen this specimen and has based his judgment 

 upon the communications of botanists concerned with systematic 

 rather than with elementary species. 



The plant A corresponds exactly with 0. Lamarckiana Ser. as 

 it is now universally cultivated and as I know it from my own 

 cultures. The specimen is evidently a side branch, picked in the 

 autumn, and the flowers, although very large, are not quite so 

 large as may be seen in July and August. It bears no fruits, but 

 the sexual organs of the flowers and the form of the flower buds 

 do not leave the least doubt concerning its identity. The stigma 

 lobes are widely spread and raised by the long style high above the 

 tops of the anthers, and this is one of the best characters of 0. 

 Lamarckiana. The buds are conical and thick, and not thin as 

 in 0. grandiflora Ait. For comparison I have given a group of 

 flower buds (pi. I), picked in the autumn also, from my pure 

 cultures. All the other marks correspond to those of the present 

 species, although of course not all of them distinguish it from allied 

 forms. 



This sheet bears the label, "d'Amerique sept., tige rameuse, 

 haute de 3 a 4 pieds," in the handwriting of Lamarck. The de- 

 scription in the Encyclopedic says of the origin of the species: 



i) The Mutation Theory i : 442, igoi. 



2) The herbarium of Lamarck was acquired by the Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle in 1886. Vergl. Bonnet, Ed., L'herbier de Lamarck, son histoire, 

 ses vicissitudes, son etat actuel. Jour, de Botanique 16: 129 — 138, 1902. 



3) Davis, B. M., Was Lamarck's evening primrose {Oenothera Lamarckiana 

 Seringe) a form of Oenothera grandiflora Solander ? Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 

 39:519—533, 1912. See pi. 37. 



