THE (ENOTH'ERA TENE'LLA TENUIF'oLIA. 
353 
FLORICULTURE. 
ARTICLE VIII.—HISTORY AND INTRODUCTION OF THE 
(ENOTH'ERA TENE'LLA TENUIF'OLIA, 
With some Observations on the Culture and Propagation of the Genus CEnothera. 
When a little purple-flowered Evening Primrose was introduced 
some years ago from Chile, it was immediately recognised as the 
one called CE. tenella, by the Spanish botanist Cavanilles. When 
grown in very poor soil, it had a simple stem, terminated by a few 
small axillary blossoms; bpt being planted in the richly cultivated 
gardens round London, it branched, and acquired greater vigour, 
putting forth longer and broader leaves, so that it was scarcely iden¬ 
tified as the poor stranger so lately received. In a while it was neg¬ 
lected, its novelty being gone, and its flowers being rather deficient 
as to size. Hence the little CEnothera tenella was only found in bo¬ 
tanical collections. The collectors, who went out to Chile and the 
islands of the Pacific, with Capt. Beechey, returned in 1829, and 
Mr. Lambert procured from them, among other things, specimens 
of another Evening Primrose, the CE. tenuifolia, upon which ripe 
seeds were found. These being sown produced the plant now figured, 
which is, so far as gardens are concerned, a very different plant, but 
which in the eye of a botanist, can hardly be considered distinct. 
It differs from CE. tenella in having longer and more channelled 
leaves, with much larger and far more shewy flowers. For while in 
CE. tenella the flowers are half hidden by the leaves, in the CE. te¬ 
nuifolia the leaves can scarcely be discovered for the flowers.—J. 
Lindley.* 
Culture of the Genus. —The name CEnothera, is derived from 
Oinos , wine, and thera, a catching, because the roots are said to 
smell like wine, and the ancients supposed that, when mixed with 
drink, they possessed the power of calming the most ferocious ani¬ 
mals. They are also said to allay intoxication. It is, however, 
doubtful whether our CEnothera is the real genus to which Theo¬ 
phrastus applied the name. Most of the Annual Species thrive and 
flower best in poor and gravelly soil, but they will grow rampant 
and strong in rich soil, though their flowers neither possess that de¬ 
gree of beauty nor can the permanence of the colour be relied upon 
so much as when grown in poor land. Perhaps none shew marks of 
* Botanical Register. 
