O MUTANTS AND HYBRIDS OF THE OENOTHERAS. 



ticulturists to come from Texas," and also "Oe. lamarckiana," all by 

 Dr. Gray. It is to be noted that the date of the above culture agrees 

 with that of the Drummond plants in England mentioned above. 



The second phase of the effort to trace O. lamarckiana to its 

 original habitat was directed to an examination of the material to be 

 found in the American herbaria and to excursions to some of the his- 

 torical locations. Several specimens of prime interest were encoun- 

 tered. A specimen collected by A. W. Chapman in Florida, and sent 

 by him to Europe, becoming a part of the Meissner herbarium which 

 was afterward purchased by Columbia University, was thought by 

 Professor De Vries to be O. lamarckiana, and the mark on the sheet 

 shows that it was used by Chapman (1860, 1872, 1884) in making up 

 the description of O. biennis in the editions of his southern flora, in 

 which O. grandiflora Ait. was given as a synonym in the editions of 

 1860 and 1862, but does not appear in the later edition of 1897. In 

 the description he says : ' ' Varies greatly in pubescence and size of 

 flower," while the habitat is given as "Fields and waste places." 

 The elimination of the synonym from the last edition of the book can 

 not be accounted for, although the plant was presumably growing in 

 a wild condition. A duplicate of the specimen mentioned above is 

 reported by Mr. C. D. Beadle to be in the Biltmore Herbarium at 

 Biltmore, N. C. A similar specimen is to be found in the herbarium 

 of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 



During the visit of Professor De Vries to America in the summer 

 of 1904 he joined in the quest for specimens of O. lamarckiana and 

 called attention to a sheet of material in the herbarium of the Phila- 

 delphia Academy of Sciences, collected by C. W. Short near Lexington, 

 Ky., which he considered as . lamarckiana , and which was grown 

 wild in the locality recorded. 



The co-operation of a number of botanists in various parts of the 

 supposed range of the species was secured and a thorough search was 

 made in the vicinity of Nashville, Tenn., by Prof. Geo. A. Martin ; 

 in the vicinity of Knoxville, Tenn., by Prof. S. M. Bain; in the 

 vicinity of Lexington, Ky., by Prof. H. Garman ; and in the vicinity 

 of Courtney, Mo., by Mr. B. F. Bush. Up to the present time, how- 

 ever, no living plants have been found that might be included within 

 the descriptions of O. lamarckiana. 



The above evidence makes it fairly conclusive, however, that the 

 large-flowered evening-primose which formed the basal material for 

 the experimental researches of De Vries is, or was, a component part 

 of the flora of North America and has been seen in the Carolinas, 

 Florida, Kentucky, and Texas during the last century, and that 

 material from Texas examined by L,indley fairly represents the 



