590 THE PROBABLE ORIGIN OF OENOTHERA LAMARCKIANA SER. 



to US as completely unaltered as may be shown by old herbarium 

 specimens. Moreover, it tends to make it at least very probable 

 that the European strains, or at least some of them, are derived from 

 the importation of seeds by Michaux. The specimen A in the 

 herbarium of Lamarck, designated as "d'Amerique sept.," probably 

 belonged to this same strain. 



The exact situation of the locality where Michaux collected 

 this specimen is, of course, unknown. Much stress is laid by many 

 authors upon the fact that no wild station for 0. Lamarckiana has 

 been discovered lately in any part of the United States. This 

 argument evidently loses the main part of its weight when we know 

 that it was observed by such a well known botanist as Michaux. 

 Moreover, this situation is not peculiar to 0. Lamarckiana; on 

 the contrary, the same condition prevails for the other European 

 species, 0. biennis, L., 0. muricata L., and 0. suaveolens Desf., 

 whose original stations in the United States and Canada have not 

 been rediscovered. Even 0. grandiflora, which is known to occur 

 in Alabama in different localities, is observed there to grow on 

 cultivated soil only, especially on old fields of corn and cotton, and 

 no one knows whence it came. Therefore, if our present ignorance 

 of the origin of 0. Lamarckiana is adduced in order to throw a 

 doubt on its reality as a good species, the same doubt is attached 

 to its nearest allies, and, in fact, to all the dozens of elementary 

 species of the group Onagra which are now being found wild on 

 waste fields and along roadsides all through the United States. 

 Autochthonous stations are not known for any of them. 



A most valuable contribution to the clearance of the historical 

 data concerning the origin of 0. Lamarckiana Ser. has been brought 

 forward by Davis in his criticism of the alleged Texan origin of the 

 present cultivated strain. This was introduced into the trade by 

 Messrs. Carter and Co. of High Holbom in the neighborhood of 

 London, about the middle of the last century. These horticul- 

 turists offered the seeds as coming from Texas. But, since then, no 

 botanist is known to have seen the plant in that state, and Davis 

 suggests (p. 523) that the statement might, perhaps, have been 

 caused by a mistake.^) Now, it is well known that such details 

 are, as a rule, given more in the interest of advertising than in 

 that of pure science. Moreover, no horticulturist likes to offer 



i) See Davis in New Phytol. 12:234. 1913. 



