Origin o/CEnothera Lamarckiana De Vries. 239 
biennis and if the petals were really no more than 3 cm. long the 
flower size was also closer to this species than to the large-flowered 
forms of Lamarckiana. On the other hand the stigma lobes figured 
somewhat above the tips of the anthers are in a position more like 
that in Lamarckiana than in the Dutch biennis where the stigma 
lobes lie below the tips of the anthers and pollination takes place 
before the opening of the bud. 
In the third edition of the “English Botany” Syme 1 gives a 
description of “ Oenothera biennis Linn.” and states it to be “ now 
perfectly established on the Lancashire coast, at Crosbie, near 
Liverpool, and occuring occasionally throughout Britain, but 
generally an outcast from gardens.” The description of this plant 
is accompanied by a somewhat different figure from that in the 
edition of 1806, but the two figures agree in all essentials of structure. 
The figure and description indicate a plant 2-3 feet high, rosette 
leaves oblanceolate-elliptical 6 inches to 1 foot long, stem leaves 
elliptical 3-6 inches long, all leaves short petioled and with thick 
white midribs, repand denticulate; flowers with petals 1^ to 1^ inch 
or more across (about 3-4 cm.), stigma lobes figured somewhat 
above the tips of the anthers ; “ plants dull green, sub-glabrous, 
with the stem, calyces, petioles, midribs, and margins of the leaves 
more or less hairy.” In this account, also, as in that of the first 
edition (1806) there is no mention of that stem coloration character¬ 
istic of Lamarckiana, i.e., red papillae on green portions of the stem. 
This point together with the statement that the plant is dull 
green suggests the Dutch biennis but the large petals and the 
position of the stigma indicate a plant with flowers more like those 
of Lamarckiana. 
It ought at least to be possible to determine through herbaria 
whether or not the “ (Enothera biennis ” described in the different 
editions of the “ English Botany ” is the same form or one similar 
to the Dutch biennis which probably represents the OSnotJiera biennis 
of Linnaeus. It ought to be possible to obtain evidence through 
herbaria for or against the possibility of the presence in England 
of 0. Lamarckiana De Vries at a date as early as 1806 or at least 
previous to 1860. There should be some direct evidence whether 
or not O. Lamarckiana was first introduced into England through 
the cultures of Carter and Company at about 1860 and whether or 
not its appearance on the sand hills of Lancashire is of an earlier 
or a later date. 
1 English Botany, Third Edition, vol. 4, p. 24, 1865. 
