8 MUTANTS AND HYBRIDS OF THE OENOTHERAS. 



V 



stirp. nov. Tom. 2. tab. 4. Great-flowered Oenothera, Nat.' of North 

 America. Introd. 1778 by John Fothergill, M. D. Fl. July and 

 August" (Aiton, 1879). 



It being deemed very important that a visit to the locality men- 

 tioned by Bartram should be made, Prof. S. M. Tracy, of Biloxi, 

 Miss., generously undertook to make the search. In accordance with 

 arrangements he proceeded up the Alabama River on August 16, 1904, 

 and five days later came upon the plant not far from the original 

 locality. Professor Tracy has kindly prepared the following report : 



The locality for this plant, as given by Bartram, was " a few miles above 

 Taensa." The country immediately about Ten saw is mostly the dry, pine hills 

 common in that section, and a careful search for several miles about the town 

 did not reveal a single plant belonging to the Epilobiacese. Fort Mimms, 5 miles 

 from Tensaw on the bank of the Alabama River, was doubtless Bartram's head- 

 quarters while he was in that part of the State, but a careful search of the river 

 for some miles failed of results. Dixie Landing, 25 miles above Fort Mimms by 

 river, and 13 by road from Tensaw, was the first place where the plant was seen. 

 Immediately below the steamboat landing there is quite a stretch of abandoned 

 fields covered with a dense growth of Chamaecrista robasta from 4 to 5 feet in 

 height, and those plants are thoroughly tangled with Bradburya virginiana, which 

 makes walking exceedingly difficult. The evening-primrose was found as an occa- 

 sional plant in this growth, the first plants being seen about a quarter of a mile 

 below the landing, and others being found more or Less abundantly for more than 

 a mile down the river. When growing in the thick weeds the plants were mostly 

 erect, with simple stems, a few of which were beginning to branch at the top. A 

 few plants were found immediately on the river bank, and even on the sides of 

 the almost perpendicular bank, which is about 20 feet high, and when growing in 

 that location were, as Bartram describes them, " Rising erect 7 or 8 feet, branch- 

 ing on all sides from near the earth upwards, the lower branches extensive, and 

 the succeeding gradually shorter to the top of the plant, forming a pyramid in 

 figure." The largest plant -found measured 8 feet 9 inches in height. No small 

 plants were found, and from the root and stem characters the plant is doubtless 

 an annual. No plants were found more than 200 yards from the bank of the 

 river, and only a few plants were found in the shade of trees. Hundreds of 

 plants were examined, but no mature seed could be found. 



A visit to Earle's Landing, 5 miles below Dixie Landing, showed the plant 

 to be fairly abundant there also. In nearly all cases they grew on alluvial soil, 

 which was sandy rather than heavy, and none was found near wet or marshy places. 

 The river bank was examined nearly the whole of the distance from Dixie to 

 Earle's Landing, and the plant was not rare on open ground covered with Chamae- 

 crista, but was not seen in any other location. All of the region examined was on 

 the east bank of the Alabama River. A gentleman owning land immediately 

 opposite Dixie informed me that it grew in one place on the west bank. 



A large number of herbarium specimens we're prepared by Pro- 

 fessor Tracy, all of which were forwarded to the New York Botanical 

 Garden for examination, and from which seeds were obtained suitable 

 for cultures which promise to be of great service in comparisons with 

 the other large-flowered species of the evening-primroses. 



