[From the Bulletin of the Toreby Botanical Club, 39: 519-533. plsYjT-jq. il N(Wfoi6] 



Was Lamarck's evening primrose {Oenothera Lamarckiana 

 Seringe) a form of Oenotfiera grandiflora Solander ? 



Bradley Moore Davis 

 (with plates 37-39) 



This paper will present evidence which in the writer's opinion 

 clearly indicates that the Oenothera grown in the gardens of the 

 Museum d'Histoire Naturelle at Paris about 1796, described by 

 Lamarck ( ? 1 798) under the name A enoihera grandiflora and renamed 

 by Seringe (1828) Oenothera Lamarckiana, was a form of Oenothera 

 grandiflora Solander (1789), introduced into England in 1778 from 

 Alabama. If this identification is correct it follows that the name 

 Oenothera Lamarckiana Seringe becomes a synonym of Oenothera 

 grandiflora Solander (0. grandiflora "Alton"). 



The evidence in the light of recent studies shows that Professor 

 De Vries made an incorrect determination of the material of his 

 cultures when he identified it with Lamarck's plant of 1796 or 

 earlier. The material of De Vries's cultures is very different from 

 this plant and can only be allowed to keep the name Lamarckiana 

 when written ' ' Oenothera Lamarckiana De Vries "; it is not Oenothera 

 Lamarckiana Seringe. 



My attention was first directed to this matter on seeing in the 

 herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden tracings of La- 

 marck's plant, the type of Oenothera Lamarckiana Seringe, which 

 is preserved in Lamarck's herbarium at the Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle. The resemblance of these tracings to the material of 

 Oenothera grandiflora Solander from Alabama, now assembled in 



519 



