Davis: LAMARCK’S EVENING PRIMROSE 521 
3 pedalis.’” The spelling of the word Oenothera is not clear; it 
might be interpreted “‘ Onothera”’ or possibly “‘ Aenothera.”” This 
note designating a new species, grandiflora, in the handwriting of 
Lamarck establishes the specimen as what we would now designate 
as the type of his species Aenothera grandiflora described in the En- 
cyclopédie Méthodique Botanique 4: 554. ?1798. Thisdescription 
agrees with the specimen. It seems unlikely that we shall ever 
know the exact date at which the description was published. 
Authors usually give it as 1797, but Sherborn and Woodward 
(1906), from evidence presented by extraneous matter bound in 
with certain copies of the volume concerned, place the year as 
’1798. I can find no evidence that Poiret wrote the description, 
as was believed by De Vries, but he is known to have written 
later volumes of the encyclopedia. 
Seringe in his diagnosis of Oenothera Lamarckiana (De Can- 
dolle, Prodromus 3: 47. 1828) gives O. grandiflora Lamarck as 
a synonym together with the comment that the species is not 
the grandiflora of Aiton. This was of course his reason for renam- 
ing the plant. The diagnosis of Seringe, as will appear later, is 
virtually a copy of a portion of Lamarck’s description. 
The following is the description of the species written by 
Lamarck in the Encyclopédie Méthodique Botanique; it should 
be noted that the abbreviation (V.S.) at the end of the diagnosis 
shows that the description was based on dried material. 
“12. Onograire a grandes fleurs. Anothera grandiflora (n). 
4tnothera foliis integerrimis, ovato-lanceolatis; petalis integris, 
capsulis glabris. 
“Cette espéce paroit se rapprocher, par son port, de l’eno- 
thera longiflora; mais elle en différe par plusieurs caractéres 
frappans, sur-tout par ses tiges rameuses, ses pétales entiers, 
ses fruits lisses & courts. 
“Ses tiges s’élévent 4 trois ou quatre pieds de hauteur. 
Elles sont cylindriques, munies de quelques poils rares, d’un 
Touge brun, divisées en rameaux nombreux, étalées. Les 
feuilles sont vertes, alternes, ovales, lancéolées, lisses & glabres 
des deux cOtés, trés-entiéres; les feuilles du bas sont pétiolées 
& munies de quelques dents a peine sensibles. Celles qui 
accompagnent les fleurs sont plus étroites, plus aigués & sessiles. 
‘Les fleurs sont terminales, & forment, par leur disposition, 
une panicule étalée; elles sont axillaires, solitaires, mais trés- 
