5S6 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLV 



label reads "Oenothera biennis foliis ovato-lanceolatis 

 planis, eaule murieato subvilloso Lin.: Spec. Plant. 492. 

 Lysimachia lutea corniculata. Bauhin: pin. 245." This 

 specimen has smaller flowers than the previous ones, the 

 flowers being the same size as the American races of 0. 

 biennis. The leaves are very broadly lanceolate, sharply 

 narrowed at base to a very short petiole, and appear to 

 be of a different shape from those of any American 

 biennis I have seen. The stem bears scattered papillae 

 from which long hairs arise. 



A consideration of these five specimens makes it 

 highly probable that Tournefort's Onagra latifolia and 

 Bauhin 's Lysimachia lutea corniculata belonged to what 

 we now for convenience call the "European biennis" 

 rather than to the larger-flowered, longer- styled, 0. 

 Lamarckiana. Yet specimen (3) with its long style 

 though the flowers are the same size as in the European 

 biennis, makes it impossible to be dogmatic as to where 

 the line is to be drawn between the 0. Lamarckiana and 

 the 0. biennis series of forms. If these specimens are 

 correctly labeled, then there must have been compara- 

 tively little difference between Tournfort's species (1) 

 and (2), (1) representing the "European biennis" and 

 (2) a form probably open-pollinated but with flowers 

 smaller than the present 0. Lamarckiana. The "long 

 and narrow pale green leaves" of Bauhin 's and Parkin- 

 son's plant (see Gates, 'lla, pp. 91 and 95) would indi- 

 cate that it differed in certain features from any race of 

 the European biennis now known. 



As already pointed out, the synonymy as well as the 

 flower-size would indicate that Morison's larger-flow- 

 ered plant Lysimachia Virginian a latifolia lutea, corni- 

 culata was the same as Barretter's Lysimachia lutea, 

 corniculata, latifolia, Lusitanica which is undoubtedly a 

 large-flowered form. However, it seems on the whole 

 more probable that Morison's plant was the same as 

 Bauhin 's, whose description he copies. In any case it 

 seems clear that Barrelier's Lysimachia lutea, cornicu- 



