Davis: LAMARCK’S EVENING PRIMROSE 5381 
come widely distributed, which explains its presence in Paris some- 
what earlier than ?1798, when Lamarck’s description was published. 
Escaping from the gardens, the plant has been reported as growing 
wild at various stations in England and France, Following in 
the wake of its distribution to European botanical centers came 
the inevitable description as new species of forms derived from the 
original. O¢enothera suaveolens Desfontaines and Lamarck’s plant, 
Oenothera Lamarckiana Seringe, were undoubtedly such deriva- 
tives and must be considered as forms of Oenothera grandiflora 
Solander. 
The identification of Lamarck’s plant with Oenothera grandiflora 
Solander has very greatly modified the problem of the origin of 
“ Oenothera Lamarckiana De Vries.” The problem has become far 
more tangible. I have recently (Davis, 1911, p. 226, and 1912, p. 
379) criticized adversely the evidence that has been offered to 
show that Lamarckiana was known previous to 1778 when grandi- 
flora was introduced into England. With Lamarck’s plant 
assigned to grandiflora we pass from the eighteenth century to 
periods when we may hope for more direct evidence than that 
furnished by the old accounts and figures. 
We know that as a cultivated plant handled by seedsmen O. 
Lamarckiana first appeared about 1860, when it was placed on the 
market by the firm of Carter and Company of London, who state 
that their seed came from Texas. The identification by Lindley 
of these plants with O. Lamarckiana Seringe was undoubtedly in- 
Correct. I have recently described and figured (Davis, 1912, p. 417) 
Certain well preserved specimens of an Oenothera in the Gray Herb- 
arium from a plant grown at Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Dr. 
Asa Gray in 1862. Evidence is there given which indicates that 
this plant held a close genetical relationship to these same cultures 
of Carter and Company, perhaps not more than one or two genera- 
tions removed from the original plants. These specimens show 
characters in part those of De Vries’s Lamarckiana and in part like 
Srandiflora. If this plant grown by Dr. Gray was representative 
of the cultures of Carter and Company their plants must have 
differed from the Lamarckiana of today in a number of important 
Particulars, | regard this herbarium sheet as the most important 
new known bearing on the problem of the origin of Oenothera 
Lamarckiana, Its relation to the writer’s working hypothesis that 
