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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XL VII 



The historical side of the problem then largely centers 

 on the history and composition of these cultures of Carter 

 and Company. We have the statement of this firm that 

 their seeds were received unnamed from Texas. This 

 suggests that Lamarckiana De Vries may have in it the 

 blood of some of the large-flowered Oenotheras with an 

 upright habit that are known to be present in the south- 

 western United States. There are a large number of 

 such forms which frequently pass under the name of 

 (Enothera Hookeri and have not as yet been properly 

 segregated in the experimental garden. I am working 

 with several of these types to determine whether any of 

 them may prove to be more favorable than grandiflora as 

 forms to cross with biennis in my attempts to synthesize 

 Lamarckiana as a hybrid. (See note at end of paper.) 



It must, however, be borne in mind that we have at 

 present no confirmatory evidence that such plants as 

 Carter and Company describe or the Lamarckiana of 

 De Vries 's cultures grow in Texas. It is possible that 

 Carter and Company obtained their plants from some 

 part of England, as from the sand hills of Lancashire, 

 where large-flowered Oenotheras were reported at dates 

 earlier than 1860 and where at the present day (E. La- 

 marckiana is successfully established. We must look to 

 British botanists for investigations which will make clear 

 the history of such (Enothera floras as that of Lancashire, 

 and it is to be hoped that collections will be thoroughly 

 searched for evidence on their probable development. 



With respect to the composition of the cultures of 

 Carter and Company we have some strong evidence from 

 the specimens grown by Asa Gray in 1862 that their 

 plants differed in some important respects from the La- 

 marckiana of De Vries. These specimens have been 

 figured and described (Davis, 12a, pp. 417-422) and it 

 seems probable that the plants were not more than one or 

 two generations removed from the original cultures of 

 Carter and Company. The specimens have characters 

 in part those of De Vries 's Lamarckiana and in part those 



