OENOTHERA LAMARCKIANA: ITS EARLY CULTIVA- 
TION AND DESCRIPTION 
OSA) ms ip 
The question raised by Dr. R. R. GaTeEs in a recent number of 
Science (N.S. 312425. 1910) as to the earliest description and 
origin of Oenothera Lamarckiana Seringe, the importance of which 
is expressed in a notice in the BoTANICAL GAZETTE (50:79. 1910), 
is the occasion of some historical investigation I have made along 
the same lines. Gates takes as the earliest description one in 
manuscript in the form of a long marginal note in a copy of C. 
-Bavuin’s Pinax, forming one of the Sturtevant collection in the 
library of the Missouri Botanical Garden. It was apparently 
written by one JOANNIS SNIPPENDALE, and is considered as written 
- from the living specimens. In the Pinax the plant is called 
Lysimachia lutea corniculata. 
GaTEs gives four characteristics to show that the description 
applies to a plant of O. Lamarckiana and not to O. biennis L. or to 
O. grandiflora Ait. These are in the main the form of the rosette 
leaves, the large flowers, the type of hair arising from reddened 
papillae, and the quadrangular buds. But taking these as the 
criteria, I fail to see in what réspect it is not essentially the same 
as a lengthy description made by BAvutN and published in 1623 
in the appendix to the Pinax (pp. 520, 521). This of necessity is 
older than any marginal one placed in a copy subsequent to publica- 
tion, with the additional advantage of a definite date, if applicable 
to the same species. The Pinax is mainly a bibliography of botany, 
up to the time of its publication notes or brief characterizations 
being frequently added to the various topics. In the appendix 
are corrections of errors made in some of the earlier printed parts, 
an interruption in the printing affording an opportunity for this, 
and for the addition of other matter. These are mostly descrip- 
tions of plants mentioned in the body of the book, or of new forms, 
all longer than those customarily given. The longest and fullest 
of these is Lysimachia lutea corniculata, mentioned in the previous 
Botanical Gazette, vol. 51] | [136 
