CCX. — THE WOOD LOOSESTRIFE. 
Lysimachia nemorum Linne. 
T HE Tribe Lysimachie# , as understood by Pax, is mainly characterised by the 
convolute aestivation of the corolla, each petal having one edge overlapping and 
the other overlapped. It includes five British genera : — Lysimachia , Trientalis , and 
G/aux, with capsules dehiscing by valves, and Anagallis and Centunculus in which they 
split transversely. All five agree in having cauline leaves and a superior ovary. 
The genus Lysimachia comprises some sixty species, natives of Temperate and 
Sub-tropical regions and mostly northern. Four species are British. The name 
Avoifia-gia, Lusimachia , was used by Dioscorides and seems to have been originally 
given in honour of Lysimachus, King of Thrace, who was, as Gerard puts it, “the 
first finder out of the nature and vertues of this herbe.” A fancy portrait of 
Lysimachus appears, with others, on the title-page of the Flemish, French, and 
English editions of Dodoens’s “ Herbal.” What the herb was, is not at all clear, 
since the Purple Loosestrife ( Ly thrum Sa/icaria Linn£), and, perhaps, the Epilobiums, 
seem to have been included under the name. By the time of Pliny, however } 
the notion had arisen that the name was derived direct from Xficrts, lusis, loosing, 
and naxV’ ma che, strife, and accordingly Pliny supplies the explanation — to quote 
Gerard once more — 
“of a speciall vertue that it hath in appeasing the strife and unrulinesse which falleth out among oxen at the plough, if it be 
put about their yokes.” 
The confusion is perpetuated by later writers. Turner, in his “ Names of 
Herbes,” writes : — 
“Lysimachia is of two sortes. The one is described of Dioscorides, and it hath a yealowe floure. Some cal it 
Lycimachiam luteam, it groweth by the Temes syde beside Shene, it may be called in englishe yealow Lousstryfe or herbe 
Wylowe. The other kynde is described of Plinie, and it is called Lysimachia purpurea, it groweth by water sydes, also and 
maye be called in englishe red loostryfe, or purple losestryfe.” 
Lyte calls the former of these two plants, which is, of course, our largest species, 
Lysimachia vulgaris Linne, Gclden Loosestrife and Golden or Yellow Willow Herb; 
and Gerard uses Willow Herb without qualification. 
While that species and the rare Lysimachia thyrsiflora Linne grow erect to the 
height of several feet, other species, such as the one here represented and the 
Moneywort or Creeping Jenny (L. Nummularia Linne), are small prostrate plants ; 
but they are perennial. The leaves throughout the genus are cauline, simple, 
and entire, and the flowers nearly always yellow, as they are in all our British forms, 
and destitute of both honey and odour. The calyx is persistent and has five, or 
very rarely six, deeply divided spreading lobes : the corolla is rotate, though in 
L. Nummularia Linn£ it may rather be termed funnel-shaped ; and the single whorl 
of stamens, opposite to the petals, are generally distinguished from those of Anagallis 
by having smooth filaments. The style persists as a point to the capsule ; and the 
