532 Davis: LAMARCK’S EVENING PRIMROSE 
Lamarckiana arose as a hybrid between biennis and grandiflora has 
been fully discussed in the paper mentioned above. 
Although Carter and Company state that they received their 
seed from Texas, it must be borne in mind that we have at present 
no confirmatory evidence that such a plant as they describe or 
as that represented on the sheet in the Gray Herbarium is native 
in the southern or southwestern United States. Here is a problem 
that well deserves the attention of botanists in these regions, who 
should make every effort to bring such a type to light that seed 
may be sent to the workers in the experimental gardens. If such 
a form grew in Texas no further back than 1860 it may surely be 
expected there today. 
It is possible that the cultures of Carter and Company arose in 
England and that their association with a Texan source may have 
been some mistake on the part of the seedsmen. We have several 
accounts of large-flowered Oenotheras in England at dates previous 
to 1860. The most important and the earliest is that in Smith’s 
English Botany (22: 1534. 1806) with the excellent figure of 
Sowerby. This account describes at this early date (1806) very 
extensive growths of an interesting form on the sand banks along 
the coast a few miles north of Liverpool. At the present day 
“ Oenothera Lamarckiana De Vries” and variants from this type ae 
established and flourishing over extensive tracts in the same region 
north of Liverpool through the sand hills of Lancashire. It 1s 
not impossible that the Lamarckiana of Carter and Company may 
have come from such regions. ey 
The problem of the origin of ‘‘Oenothera Lamarckiana De Vries 
must be approached from two sides. The English botanists 
have the problem of the history of such an QOenothera flora as 
that of the Lancashire sand hills, and collections should be searched 
with the greatest thoroughness for herbarium sheets that may 
of assistance in tracing its development. American botanists have 
the problem of the discovery and isolation by cultures of the 
large-flowered Oenotheras throughout the south and west, which 
might have a direct relationship to Lamarckiana or which might 
be one of the parents of a possible hybrid. A good beginning was 
made in the rediscovery of Oenothera grandiflora Solander but 
the search should be pushed further. 
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
