PRIMROSE FAMILY PRIMULACEAE 
MONEY WORT 
Lysimachia Nummularia L. 
The genus name of this plant comes from two Greek 
words meaning a release from, and strife. The Moneywort 
is therefore a Loosestrife, but of the Primrose instead of 
the Loosestrife family. 
The Moneywort is 
sometimes called Wander- 
ing Jenny or Wandering 
Sally because of its habit 
of spreading by rooting at 
the nodes of its runners. 
It is a native of Europe 
and was introduced into 
this country as a garden 
flower, but has wandered 
out to many places from 
Newfoundland and Vir- 
ginia to Illinois. This 
plant grows only in wet 
soil, is often found along 
ditches and sometimes in 
the water. In fact’ at 
grows well as a water 
plant in aquaria. 
The smooth stems may 
be 2 feet long and massing into a thick 
carpet of foliage. The opposite leaves, like 
€_ those shown, are dotted with glands. 
The flowers are produced singly in the 
leaf axils from June to August. The 5 
lobes of the calyx are about half as long as those of the yellow 
wheel-shaped corolla. On the corolla throat are attached the 5 
stamens whose filaments bear glands and are grown together at the 
base. There is 1 pistil with a spherical ovary and a slender style. 
The fruit is a capsule containing only a small number of seeds. 
In this low vale the promise of the year, 
Serene, thou openest to the nipping gale, 
Unnoticed and alone, 
Thy tender elegance. 
The Early Primrose—HENRY KIRK WHITE 
230 
