358 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [May 
suggests (p. 523) that the statement might, perhaps, have been 
caused by a mistake.” Now, it is well known that such details 
are, as a rule, given more in the interest of advertising than in 
that of pure science. Moreover, no horticulturist likes to offer 
for sale seeds with the announcement that the same form may be 
found as a wild flower in his own country. 
O. Lamarckiana has been, for many years at least, a component 
of the flora of England, growing in many localities, especially on 
the sand dunes along the coast. The most universally known 
station is that of St. Anne’s on the Sea, near Liverpool, which has 
been studied by Bartey, Gates, and other botanists, and where 
the species occurs in thousands of specimens. Davis received 
seeds from different English stations and recognized the plant in 
the cultures derived from them (of. cit. p. 237). In Lancashire 
the species locally grows together with O. biennis L., exactly as 
it does in the sand dunes of Holland. In such cases it produces 
hybrids such as I have described under the names of Jaefa and 
velutina, and as Davis has isolated as small-flowered races from 
those English localities (p. 237). 
Now, if we agree with Davis that the seeds of Carter and Co. 
were derived from some English station, the probability at once 
arises that these English stations themselves owe their origin to 
the introduction of seeds from America, either by Mic#aux him- 
self or by some other botanist of the same period. The history of 
the species would then become a very simple and clear one. In 
this respect it becomes of interest to look at the figure published 
in 1807 in Smrrx’s English Botany (vol. VI. pl. 1534)-” Accord- 
ing to the description accompanying this plate, the “ specimen was 
gathered on the extensive and dreary sand banks on the coast a 
few miles north of Liverpool, where millions of the same species 
have been observed by Dr. Bostock and Mr. JoHN SHEPHERD 
growing perfectly wild and covering large tracts between the bt 
and second range of sand hills.” In this same locality O- beet 
L. and O. Lamarckiana are now growing in the same aD 
of individuals, partly separated and pure in different valleys an 
* See Davis in New Phytol. 12:234. 1913. 
* Cf. Davis, op. cit. p. 532. 
