586 THE PROBABLE ORIGIN OF OENOTHERA LAMARCKIANA SER. 



scriptio praestat herbario" applies in our special case, even as it 

 does in many others. In our case, the description is relatively 

 complete and clear, while in the dried specimen only part of the 

 characters are represented. 



For all these reasons I cannot agree with Davis, who says 

 (p. 519) that I made an incorrect determination of the material of 

 my cultures, when I identified it with Lamarck's plant of 1796. 

 The authentic specimen of Lamarck and the description in the 

 Encyclopedie correspond as closely with the characters of my 

 plants as dried specimens and descriptions expressed in words 

 ever can do. 



On the contrary, the specimen B is surrounded with doubts. 

 Davis has given a very elaborate description of this branch, com- 

 paring it with my Lamarckiana. The sheet bears the label: ''Oeno- 

 thera .... (grandiflora) .... nova spec, flores magni lutei, odore 

 grato, caulis 3 pedalis," The fact that the name grandiflora is 

 placed in brackets shows that Lamarck did not wholly trust his 

 identification of this plant with the other one. Perhaps the words 

 "nova species" indicate that he took it to be possibly a different 

 species. Later Poiret discovered the identity of this specimen 

 with 0. grandiflora Alton Hort. Kew,^) as has been indicated by 

 Davis. And in De Candolle's Prodromus (3:47, 1828) Seringe 

 separated the two types, describing 0. grandiflora Ait. and 0. 

 Lamarckiana (Ser. MSS) as different species. 



The words "odore grato" point to 0. grandiflora Ait., which 

 has fragrant flowers, while the flowers of 0. Lamarckiana Ser. 

 are almost without odor. In the original description no mention 

 is made of the odor, and this shows once more that the specimen 

 B was not the authentic one for this description. 



Davis has compared the branch B with some of his hybrid 

 strains from Dixie Landing^) and finds a close resemblance. Per- 

 haps the plant of Lamarck was a chance hybrid found in the Jardin 

 des Plantes, and in this case, as Davis says, "we can have no 

 certainty as to the characters of an individual plant unless its seeds 

 have been grown in large cultures."^) At all events, it is not backed 

 by other herbarium material in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, 



i) Encyclopedic methodique, Suppl. IV, p. 141, 1816. See Davis, p. 522. 



2) At Dixie Landing, Alabama, only hybrid strains of O. grandiflora and 

 O. Tracyi, perhaps mixed with other species too, are to be found. See 

 Opera VI, p. 551. 



3) Davis, B. M., A much desired Oenothera. Plant World 16 : 148, 1913. 



