A MUCH DESIRED OENOTHERA 



BRADLEY MOORE DAVIS 

 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 



This paper is written to bring to the attention of botanists in 

 the southwestern part of the United States a problem of impor- 

 tance and great interest. It is the problem of the origin of Oeno- 

 thera Lamarckiana De Vries. 



It seems clear from evidence recently brought forward^ that 

 the Lamarckiana of De Vries's cultures is not the same plant as 

 that described by Lamarck^ under the name Aenothera grandi- 

 flora from material grown in Paris at about 1796 or earlier, and 

 renamed by Seringe^ Oenothera Lamarckiana. The plant of Lam- 

 arck seems to have been a form of Oenothera grandiflora Solander* 

 (0. grandiflora "Alton") introduced into England in 1778 from 

 Alabama. 



The material of De Vries's cultures which I have proposed shall 

 bear the name Oenothera Lamarckiana De Vries (since 0. Lam- 

 arckiana Seringe passes into the synonomy of 0. grandiflora 

 Solander) has with little doubt come down to us, possibly greatly 

 modified, from certain plants placed upon the market by the seeds- 

 men Carter and Company of London at about 1860. 



The description of the cultures of Carter and Company is not 

 sufficiently detailed to allow us to form a picture of their plants 

 further than that they were 3 to 4 feet high, very hardy, and with 

 flowers 4 inches in diameter. The figure published with the de- 

 scription^ is of an impossible Oenothera. Carter and Company 



1 Davis, B. M., Was Lamarck's evening primrose {Oenothera Lamarckiana Ser- 

 inge) a form of Oenothera grandiflora Solander? Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 39: 519, 

 1912. 



2 Lamarck, Encyclopedic M^thodique Botanique, 4: 554,? 1798. 

 'Seringe, N. C, De Candolle, Prodromus, 3 : 47, 1828. 

 ^ Solander, D., Alton, Hortus Kewensis, 2: 2, 1789. 

 5 The Floral Magazine 2: pi. 78, 1862. 



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THE PI-A.VT WORLD, VOL. 16, NO. 5, MAY, 1913 



