IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
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of the forms we call 0. biennis L., 0. Lamarckiana Ser., and 0. grandi- 
flora Ait., enables one to decide definitely in many cases which form is 
referred to in the early descriptions and plates, and in this way a much 
more accurate knowledge of the history of these forms in Europe can 
be attained. 
The earliest figure of an Oenothera which I have seen is in Alpin’s 
T)e Plantis Exoticis, 1627. This book was published in Venice, and the 
plants were grown from seeds obtained from an English physician and 
‘‘philosopher.” There is a description (p. 325) under the name Ilyoscya- 
mus Virginianns and a crude line-drawing which, with the description, 
leaves no doubt that this is a large-flowered evening primrose; and it 
came from “Virginia.” The extremely long hypanthia in the drawing 
are probably exaggerated, but the statement in the description, “Ex 
singulis vero alarum foliorum cavis exibat petiolus digitali longitudine 
fere” shows that the flower must have approximated closely to the size 
of our present large-flowered forms. See plate 1. 
The earliest reference to North American Oenotheras seems to be in 
Caspar Bauhin’s Pinax (1623) published at Basil. Here (page 245) he 
enumerates, with polynomials, eighteen species of Lysimachia. His 
sub-section Lysimachia Intea includes some species still retained in Lysi- 
machia and also Oenothera biennis L. ; his sub-section Lysimachia sili- 
quosa is our genus Epilobium ; and his Lysimachia spicata and non- 
spicata include species of Lythrum, Veronica and Scutellaria. The Oeno- 
thera form is described as follows ; — 
Lysimachia lutea cornicidata. 
Lysimachiae Virgineae nomine ipsum semen Patavio missum quod anno 
1619. in horto elegant er crevit & ex seniine deciduo se facile hactenus 
propagavit. 
This reference to p. 245 of Bauhin’s Pinax is the only one quoted in 
most of the later citations. One of The copies of the Pinax (1623) found 
in the library of the Missouri Botanical Garden contains a marginal note 
describing the plant represented by Bauhin’s Lysimachia lutea cornicu- 
lata. The owner of this volume who evidently inserted these and other 
marginal notes, was Joannis Snippendale who I have since learned, (see 
Andrews, 1910) was about this time connected with the Botanical Garden 
at Amsterdam. A note on this sid)ject was published in Science (1910). 
I have since found the source of the Snippendale manuscript. It is to 
be found printed in an appendix to the Pinax, p. 520, and therefore the 
description, which was especially long and detailed for the time, refers 
