Davis: Lamarck's evening primrose 521 



3 pedalis." The spelling of the word Oenothera is not clear; it 

 might be interpreted " Onothera " or possibly " Aenothera." This 

 note designating a new species, grandiflora^ in the handwriting of 

 Lamarck establishes the specimen as what we would now designate 

 as the type of his species Aenothera grandiflora described in the En- 

 cyclop6dieM6thodiqueBotanique4: 554. ?I798. This description 

 agrees with the specimen. It seems unlikely that we shall ever 

 know the exact date at which the description was published. 

 Authors usually give it as 1797, but Sherborn and Woodward 

 (1906), from evidence presented by extraneous matter bound in 

 with certain copies of the volume concerned, place the year as 

 ?I798. I can find no evidence that Poiret wrote the description, 

 as was believed by De Vries, but he is known to have written 

 later volumes of the encyclopedia. 



Seringe in his diagnosis of Oenothera Lamarckiana (De Can- 

 doUe, Prodromus 3: 47. 1828) gives 0. grandiflora Lamarck as 

 a synonym together with the comment that the species is not 

 the grandiflora of Alton. This was of course his reason for renam- 

 ing the plant. The diagnosis of Seringe, as will appear later, is 

 virtually a copy of a portion of Lamarck's description. 



The following is the description of the species written by 

 Lamarck in the Encyclop6die Methodique Botanique; it should 

 be noted that the abbreviation (V.S.) at the end of the diagnosis 

 shows that the description was based on dried material. 



"12. Onograire k grandes fleurs. Onothera grandiflora (n). 

 Mnothera foliis integerrimis, ovato-lanceolatis; petalis integris, 

 capsulis glabris. 



"Cette esp^ce paroit se rapprocher, par son port, de Vceno- 

 thera longiflora; mais elle en differe par plusieurs caracteres 

 frappans, sur-tout par ses tiges rameuses, ses p6tales entiers, 

 ses fruits lisses & courts. 



"Ses tiges s'elevent a trois ou quatre pieds de hauteur. 

 Elles sont cylindriques, munies de quelques poils rares, d'un 

 rouge brun, divis^es en rameaux nombreux, 6tal6es. Les 

 feuilles sont vertes, alternes, ovales, lanceol6es, lisses & glabres 

 des deux c6t6s, tr^s-entieres ; les feuilles du bas sont petiol^es 

 & munies de quelques dents k peine sensibles. Celles qui 

 accompagnent les fleurs sont plus etroites, plus aigues & sessiles. 



"Les fleurs sont terminales, & forment, par leur disposition, 

 une panicule 6talee; elles sont axillaires, solitaires, mais trfes- 



