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IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
forms to which the name 0. grandiflora has been applied/ The name 
was first given by William Aiton in Ilortus Keivehsis, Yol. II, p. 2, 1789, 
in which a figure by L’Heritier, Stirpes Novae, tom. 2, tab. 4, is cited. 
In the second edition of Hortus Ketvensis, by W. T. Aiton (1811), the 
same brief description is given, Yol. II, p. 341, but instead of the LTIeri- 
tier plate, a description by AAfilldenow, Species Flaniarum, Ami. II, p. 
306 (1789), is cited. Britten and AYoodward (1905) have traced the 
history of a number of plates of LTIeritier, which were intended for a 
second volume of the Stirpes Novae which was never published. Some 
of these plates are now in the DeCandolle library, some in Aloretti’s li- 
brary and some in the library at Kew. Among them is the plate of 
Qpnothera grandiflora, which is referred to in a letter to Dryander 
dated August 18, 1788. (See Britten and AYoodward, 1. c.) Through 
the kindness of M. Casimir De Candolle I have been able to obtain the 
original manuscript of LTIeritier, in which his description of 0. grand- 
iflora was prepared. AI. DeCandolle very kindly forwarded from his 
library a manuscript of five pages, giving LTIeritier ’s original descrip- 
tion of as many species of Oenothera. The plate (No. 4) of 0. grandi- 
flora was, however, not in the DeCandolle library, and if it is still in 
existence it will probably lie found in the library at Kew."" I have re- 
produced here a photograph and transcription of this, chronologically 
the earliest, description of 0. grandiflora, unless we call Ray’s brief ac- 
count (1686) a description. A number of points in the description make 
it certain that the plant described is 0. grandiflora Ait., as we know it, 
and not 0. Lam,arcMana. I am greatly indebted to Professor Trelease 
for valuable aid in deciphering the manuscript and in tracing these 
records. 
It is now possible to show clearly that there were at least two races of 
0. grandiflora. The first of these is represented by what I have called 
the Eastern 0. grandiflora, originally wild in Carolina, Yirginia and ad- 
jacent regions and well illustrated by Barton in The Flora of North 
America (Yol. 1, pi. 6), 1821. Certain 0. grandiflora forms from my 
cultures of Oenotheras from parts of the coast near Liverpool, England, 
agree with this form in every respect, which seemingly substantiates my 
conclusion arrived at from the historical data, that the original introduc- 
tion of 0. grandiflora took place at a very early date, from Eastern 
North America, the English plants being descended from this form 
escaped from gardens at an early period. 
iSee DeVries, Mutation Theory, 1909, Vol. I., p. 440 et seq. Also MacDoug’al et al, 
1905, p. 7. , _ 
subsequent examination of the plates of L’lTeritier in the Kew Library, shows 
that the illustration of O. grandiflora is not among them. ‘ • 
