MUTATIONS, VARIATIONS, AND RELATIONSHIPS OF THE OENOTHERAS. 67 



Texas. — Wright, without locality, in the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (?). 



Kentucky. — Neighborhood of Lexington, Short, without date, in the herbaria of Columbia 

 University and Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. The sheet in the Columbia 

 University herbarium bears the note "Oenothera muricata. Vespertine, 3 to 5 feet high." 

 This is the sheet referred to (MacDougal, Vail, Shull & Small, 1905, p. 6) as belonging to 

 O. lamarckiana, but which in the writer's opinion should belong here. The Philadelphia 

 specimen gives the exact locality "Neighborhood of Lex" fl. Augt. & after, i mile from town 

 left of Coles road to Frankfort. " It may be an escape from cultivation. 



The rediscovery of the original type locaHty of this species is recorded in a 

 previous paper (MacDougal, Vail, Shull & Small, 1905, pp. 7 and 8). The 

 seeds from which the plants described above were raised were sent to the New 

 York Botanical Garden from Tensaw, Alabama, by Mrs. J. F. Davis at the 

 request of Professor Tracy, absolutely ripe capsules not having been found at 

 the time of his visit late in August, 1904. In cultivation, 0. grandiflora has 

 the appearance described by Bartram in 1793 and again by Professor Tracy in 

 1904. (MacDougal, Vail, Shull & Small. 1905, pp. 7 and 8). 



It is very fragrant and showy, and flowers abundantly. Most conspicuous 

 and characteristic are the tapering pale-yellow buds with long, slender, seta- 

 ceous tips to the calyx-lobes. They have none of the heavy, swollen appear- 

 ance of those of O. lamarckiana and of some of its derivatives. For 24 hours 

 or so before the opsning of the flower the closed stigma crowded into the apex 

 of the bud is distinctly seen through the thin epidermis of the closed calyx- 

 lobes. The calyx-lobes when expanded are split open in twos (but very rarely 

 in fours), the petals only attaining their full size during expansion. This is 

 also the case in Oenothera argillicola (Onagra argillicola McKenzie). (Mac- 

 Dougal, Vail, Shull & Small, 1905, p. 12.) 



A further comparison of supposed plates of 0. grandiflora with living speci- 

 mens of the species would indicate the following : The plate of ' ' Oenothera 

 lamarckiana" in Ivcmaire (Illustration horticole, 9, p. 318, 1862) appears to 

 be that species, but the description of the 600 flowers, buds, and capsules on 

 one single plant would appear to refer to 0. grandiflora, 2iS O. lamarckiana does 

 not (in cultivation) flower so abundantly. The plate in Edward's Botanical 

 Register No. 1604 of ''Oenothera biennis var. grandiflora" has much stouter 

 bud-tips, bracts that are broader at the base, and much broader petals than 

 the typical O. grandiflora. 



The plate Oenothera grandiflora Sims (Curtis's Bot. Mag., pi. 2068) is quite 

 typical of the plant grown in the New York Botanical Garden as to the shape 

 of the petals, but the bud-tips are much too heavy and the bracts too broad 

 and clasping at the base. 



Large-flowered evening-primroses have appeared from time to time in the 

 eastern seaboard States; but none that have been examined so far can, be 

 determined as being certainly indigenous there. In the Gray Herbarium the 

 following specimens are noted. 



