CAREX AND EPILOBIUM IN THE LIXNEAN HERBARIUM 363 



anything approaching the amount of variation it does at St. 

 Cast. 



St. Cast is a charming resort, easily reached from St. Malo, 

 and if some botanist should feel inclined to combine a seaside 

 holiday with the study of the Evening Primrose, I may perhaps 

 hope to see these observations extended by one more competent 

 than myself. 



To sum up, I would suggest the possibility of the Mutations- 

 theorie being based on false premisses. De Vries has assumed, 

 without any justification, that Oenothera Lamarckiana is a natural 

 species. The fact that it was originally described from a garden 

 flower, grown in the Paris Jardin des Plantes, and that, in spite 

 of diligent search, it has not been discovered wild anywhere in 

 America, favours the probability that it was produced by crossing 

 various forms of the polymorphic GE. biennis, which had previously 

 been introduced in Europe. If it be so, and the onus probandi of 

 the contrary rests with the mutationists, we have no evidence of 

 mutations in the phenomenon observed by De Vries, but simply 

 one of those cases of Mendelian disjunction of hybrids to which 

 he was the first to call the attention of the naturalists of the 

 present generation. The characters of several parent forms, 

 which may, for all we know, have originated through fluctuating 

 variation, have remained latent in some individuals of (E. 

 Lamarckiana and reappear in different combinations, thus pro- 

 ducing the appearance of distinct " species," each definable by 

 several characters, springing up under our eyes. 



CAREX AND EPILOBIUM IN THE LINNEAN 



HERBARIUM. 



By Rev. E. S. Marshall, M.A., E.L.S. 



In the course of carefully reading through my copy of Hudson's 

 Flora Anglica, ed. 2 (1778), which is mainly based on Linn6's 

 Species Plantarum, ed. 2, I was led to suspect that some of the 

 names commonly applied to our British plants could not stand. 

 Having recently been able to spend some time in examining the 

 original specimens of these two genera, and making extracts from 

 Species Plantarum, ed. 1, I now venture to submit certain resulting 

 conclusions or suggestions ; and it seems likely that a systematic 

 collation of the Linnean Herbarium as a whole with the two editions 

 of Spec. Plant, and of Fl. Anglica would yield valuable results. 



Although it is true that in many instances the specimens of 

 Linn. Herb, do not represent Limit's description, I believe that 

 their evidential value has been unduly depreciated ; and it is clear 

 that he used his collection, comparatively small and imperfect 

 though it was, as a foundation for the descriptions, as the her- 

 barium numbers agree with those of Spec. Plant. Where the 

 names are in his own handwriting, their authority must be 



