3S8 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 Hkes to offer 

 for sale seeds with the annoimcement that the same form may be 

 found as a wild flower in his own coimtry. 



0. Lamarckiana has been, for many years at least, a component 

 of the flora of England, growing in many localities, especially on 

 the sand dimes along the coast. The most universally known 

 station is that of St. Anne's on the Sea, near Liverpool, which has 

 been studied by Bailey, 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 (op. cit. p. 237). In Lancashire 

 the species locally grows together with 0. biennis L., exactly as 

 it does in the sand dimes of Holland. In such cases it produces 

 hybrids such as I have described under the names of laeta and 

 velutina, and as Davis has isolated as small-flowered races from 

 those EngHsh locaUties (p. 237). 



Now, if we agree with Davis that the seeds of Carter and Co. 

 were derived from some EngUsh station, the probabiUty at once 

 arises that these EngUsh stations themselves owe their origin to 

 the introduction of seeds from America, either by Michaux 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 pubHshed 

 in 1807 in Smith's English Botany (vol. VI. pi. 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 first 

 and second range of sand hills." In this same locality O. biennis 

 L. and 0. Lamarckiana are now growing in the same abimdance 

 of individuals, partly separated and pure in different valleys and 



« See Davis in New Phytol. 12:234. 1913. 

 3° Cf. Bavis, op. cit. p. S32. 



