f 104= |] 
LysIMACHIA BuULBIFERA.  BULB-BEARING 
: LOOSESTRIFE. 
STR TRI TER Rea aaa 
Clafs and Order. 
PENTANDRIA MoNOGYNIA. 
Generic Charaffer. 
Corolla rotata. Cap/ula globofa, mucronata, 10-valvis. 
Specific Charaéter and Synonyms. 
LYSIMACHIA /riGa racemisterminalibus, petalis lanceolatis 
patulis, foliis lanceolatis feffilibus. — Hort. Kew. 
P- 199- 
In the {pring of the year 1781, I received roots of this 
plant from Mr. Rosert Seurss, then at New-York, which 
produced flowers the enfuing fummer, fince that time, | have 
had frequent opportunities of obferving a very peculiar cir- 
cumftance in its ceconomy; after flowering, inftead of pro- 
ducing feeds, it throws out gemme vivaces, or bulbs of an 
unufual form, from the ala of the leaves, which falling off in 
the month of Oftober, when the plant decays, produce young 
plants the enfuing fpring. 
As it is diftinguifhed from all the known fpecies of Ly/- 
machia by this circumftance, we have named it dulbifera inftead 
of frida, under which it appears in the Hortus Kewen/is. 
Some Botanifts, whofe abilities we revere, are of opinion 
that the trivial names of plants, which are or fhould be a kind 
of abridgment of the f{pecific charagter, ought very rarely oF 
_ never to be changed: we are not for altering them capri- 
 cioufly on every trivial occafion, but in fuch a cafe as the 
_ prefent, where the fcience is manifeftly advanced by the 
alteration, it would furely have been criminal to have pre- 
ferred .a name, barely expreffive, to one which immediately 
identifies the plant. 
The Lyfimachia bulbifera is a hardy perennial, grows {poD- 
tancoufly in boggy or fwampy ground, and hence requires 
a moilt foil, It flowers in Auguft. | 
