1914] DE VRIES— OENOTHERA LAMARCKIANA 353 



Encyclopedie correspond as closely with the characters of my 

 plants as dried specimens and descriptions expressed in words 

 ever can do. 



On the contrary, the specimen B is surrotinded with doubts. 

 Davis has given a very elaborate description of this branch, com- 

 paring it with my Z,awarc/feiawa. The sheet bears the label: "Oeno- 

 thera .... [grandiflora] .... nova spec, flores magni lutei, 

 odore grato, caulis 3 pedalis." The fact that the name grandi- 

 flora is placed in brackets shows that Lamarck did not wholly 

 trust his identification of this plant with the other one. Perhaps 

 the words "nova species" indicate that he took it to be possibly 

 a different species. Later, Poiret discovered the identity of this 

 specimen with 0. grandiflora Alton Hort. Kew,^' as has been 

 indicated by Davis. And in De Candolle's Prodromus (3:47. 

 1828), Seringe separated the two types, describing 0. grandi- 

 flora Ait. and O. Lamarckiana (Ser. MSS) as different species. 



The words "odore grato" point to 0. grandiflora Ait., which 

 has fragrant flowers, while the flowers of 0. Lamarckiana Ser. 

 are almost without odor. In the original description no mention 

 is made of the odor, and this shows once more that the specimen 

 B was not the authentic one for this description. 



Davis has compared the branch B with some of his hybrid 

 strains from Dixie Landing"" and finds a close resemblance. Per- 

 haps the plant of Lamarck was a chance hybrid foxmd in the Jardin 

 des Plantes, and in this case, as Davis says, "we can have no 

 certainty as to the characters of an individual plant iinless its seeds 

 have been grown in large cultures."' At all events, it is not backed 

 by other herbarium material in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, 

 so far as I know. If Poiret's opinion that it belongs to 0. grandi- 

 flora Ait. is correct, then it has evidently not served as a basis for 

 the description of 0. grandiflora Lam. (0. Lamarckiana Ser.). In 

 O. grandiflora the fruits are thin and relatively large, for example, 



'' Encyclopfidie m6thodique. Suppl. IV, p. 141. 1816. See Davis, p. 522. 



™ At Dixie Landing, Alabama, only hybrid strains of O. grandiflora and O. Tracyi, 

 perhaps mixed with other species too, are to be found. See Science op. cit. p. 399. 

 1912. 



"' Davis, B. M., A much desired Oenothera. Plant World 16:148. 1913. 



