442 The Systematic Value of the New Species. 



rower, more pointed and sessile. The flowers form a 

 broad terminal cluster; they arise singly from the axils 

 of the bracts but are crowded close together. The calyx 

 is yellow, the tube somewhat longer than the four lan- 

 ceolate broad-based sepals, which are terminated by a 

 short, fat, thread-like prolongation. The four petals 

 are oval, very large, and rounded, almost as long as the 

 calyx-tube and tapering down to a narrow base. The 

 fruit is a short capsule ; it is cylindrical, glabrous, and 

 truncate, square in section and is about one-third of the 

 length of the calyx-tube.^ 



The original specimens described by Lamarck are 

 still in the Herbarium of the Museum of Natural History 

 at Paris and are marked there with the same number as 

 they are in the Dictionnaire. I have carefully compared 

 these specimens with the plants which I have cultivated 

 in my experimental garden and have convinced myself 

 of the identity of the two.^ The original specimens, 

 however, by no means represent the mean type of the 

 species in every respect and therefore the description 

 does not exactly correspond to this type, particularly as 

 regards the corolla and the fruits. The petals are ob- 

 cordate but only slightly emarginate as compared with 

 O. longiflora; the fruits are of the same form and size 



"^ Encyclopedic mcthodique, Botanique par Lamarck, Tome IV. 

 Paris, An. IV (1796), pp. 550-554. Usually cited as Lam. Diet. 



^ It appears that it was not Lamarck but Poiret who wrote the 

 section on Oenothera in the Dictionnaire. The specimens in the Her- 

 barium bear the note O. grandiflora written by Poiret. In the same 

 Herbarium there is in the case for O. biennis, a specimen of Oeno- 

 thera grandiUora Lam. from the collection of Father Pourret : both 

 plants were given to the Museum in the year 1847 by Dr. Barbier. 

 This plant was probably picked by Pourret in the garden of the 

 Museum at the time of his visit to Paris in 1788. Later, Spach 

 made the following note on this specimen : Onagra vulgaris grandi- 

 flora Spach, which proves the identity of this name with O. La- 

 marckiana. This plant also agrees exactly with the form I use in 

 my cultures. 



