IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
95 
arisen by crossing during the five years between. 1614, when the plants 
are first said to have been introduced, and 1619, because a single (large- 
flowered) type was introduced and there was nothing with which it 
could cross. The earliest record of a small-flowered form I have found 
in Morison’s Hortus Blesensis in 1669, previously referred to. 
In looking through the later works of Caspar Bauhin, and especially 
the Ilistoria Plantanim Universalis of John Bauhin, I have found no 
further mention of Lysimachia lutea corniculata. In the last mentioned 
work, Vol. II, pp. 901-908 (1651), the Lysimachias are described and 
figured, but this plant is not included, most of the species described being 
evidently Epilobiums. Its absence cannot be ascribed to its being an 
exotic, for a ‘‘Lysimachia” from Argentina in 1595 is described. 
In summing up the case it may be said that the references, in the 
description, to the large flowers, the quadrangular buds, and the shape 
and other features of the rosette leaves, remove this' plant with cer- 
tainty from either 0. l)iennis or 0. grandiflora. The only discrepancies 
with 0. Lamar chiana as we now know it are (1) the rosette leaves 
scarcely exceeding an inch in width. But this may be an error, because 
the reference to ovaries an inch and a half long is evidently an error. 
IToweA^er, Parkinson, in his Faradisus, also refers to the rosette leaves as 
“long and narrow pale green leai^es, ” so that it seems probable that 
this plant had narrower and paler green rosette leaves than the one 
we now cultivate. There also appears to be no mention of the crinkling 
of the rosette leaA^es. (2) Secondary branches are not usually formed 
in our plant, although they may occur. These minor differences are, 
hoAvever, certainly of much less importance than the similarities already 
pointed out. 
The next reference that I have examined is in Parkinson’s Paradisus, 
1629. From his accompanying figure it is uncertain whether the dowers 
are large or small, but in his' Theatrum Botanicum (1640) p. 548, he 
gives a better figure. Which shows that this is undoubtedly a large 
flowered Oenothera. His quaint description is as follows : 
Lysimachia lutea siliquosa Virginiana. The tree primrose of Virginia. 
Unto what tribe or kindred I might referre this plant, I have stood long in 
suspense, in regard I make no mention of any other Lysimachia in this work: 
lest therefore it should lose all place, let me ranke it here next unto the Dames 
Violets, although I confesse it hath little affinity with them. The first yeares of 
the sowing the seede it ahideth without any stalke or flowers lying upon the 
ground, with divers long and narrow pale green leaves, spread sometimes round 
almost like a Rose, the largest leaves being outermost, the very small in the 
middle: about May the next yeare the stalke riseth, which will be in Summer 
