MUTATIONS, VARIATIONS, AND RELATIONSHIPS OF THE OENOTHERAS. 7 



Oenothera "biennis" Linn^us. 



Form as found on both sides of the River Mersey, from the estuary of the River Dee to 

 Southport, 1 8 miles north of Liverpool. It is especially luxuriant about Formby Sandhills, 

 9 miles north of Liverpool, and about Bidston railway junction, 3 miles north of Birken- 

 head. It flourishes in sandy waste ground, chiefly among the hills of blown sand along the 

 coast, and extends a few miles inland in scattered groups of plants. It also is found fre- 

 quently in cultivated ground in cottage and other gardens from the Dee to Southport. I 

 do not know the date of its first appearance in the Liverpool district, but it was mentioned 

 in Dickinson's Flora of Liverpool publication, 1851 and 1855. 



F. W. Webb saw it near Leasowe (i860), 5 miles southwest of Liverpool, and T. Sansom 

 at New Brighton (Dick, Flora). 



I have known it in various parts of this peninsula of W'irral (between Mersey and Dee) 

 since 1892. 



It has in the last five years extended greatly about Bidston Junction among the sand . 

 There is much more of it north of Liverpool. In C. C. Babington's Flora it is given as 

 "American" and its home "Lancashire Sandhills." When newly opened the flowers are 

 very fragrant, but only last twenty-four hours. 



Seeds inclosed, more of which I can send if desired; came from Bidston Junction. This 

 plant is identical with that of North Liverpool. 



At Bidston, the characteristic sandhill plants among which it flourishes are Erysimum 

 chetraiithiodcs, Brassica vionensis, Anthyllis vulncraria, Psamma arcnaria, Equisetum max- 

 imiim, Lychnis alba, Senccio jacobaea, Salix arenaria. 



It extends chiefly along the railway lines, which is suggestive as to its origin. 



Inclosed enlargement from one-fourth plate shows the plant in situ, with flowers and 

 fruit stems in end, September, 1905. This year I saw the same type of this plant about the 

 railway at Llangollen in the northwest. 



^Ir. H. Stuart Thompson (Thompson, 1906) quotes Watson's New Botan- 

 ist's Guide (1837) as the first record of 0. biennis on the coast of Somerset and 

 says, "indeed it is quite a feature in the landscape." It was this sentence 

 that aroused interest in these special plants, as anyone conversant with the 

 weed-like aspect of the 0. biennis of this region would scarcely credit them 

 with anything like a spectacular appearance. 



Hall in 1845 (Hall, 1845, p. 37) speaks of the plant as being extensively 

 naturalized on the Liverpool sandhills, and James Edward Smith in 1806 

 (Smith, 1806, p. 1534) figures a plant that was gathered on the extensive and 

 dreary sandbanks on the coast a few miles north of Liverpool, where millions 

 of the same species have been observed by Dr. Bostock and ]\Ir. John Shep- 

 herd, perfectly wild, covering a large tract between the first and second range 

 of sandhills. Some natural cause has no doubt established it here, though 

 possibly from the opposite side of the Atlantic. The Smith plate and the 

 plant figured by Baxter (Baxter, 1839, p. 257) certainly do not represent the 

 common North American 0. biennis, and the closing note in Baxter, referring 

 to the sudden expansion of the flowers, applies more readily to such large- 

 flowered species as 0. grandiflora,0. lamarckiana, and O.argillicola than to the 

 smaller-flowered ones, like 0. biennis, 0. muricata, and 0. oakesiana. 



