_Specific Character and Synonyms._

LYSIMACHIA _stricta_ racemis terminalibus, petalis lanceolatis patulis,
foliis lanceolatis sessilibus. _Hort. Kew. p. 199._

[Illustration: No 104]

In the spring of the year 1781, I received roots of this plant from Mr.
ROBERT SQUIBB, then at New-York, which produced flowers the
ensuing summer, since that time, I have had frequent opportunities of
observing a very peculiar circumstance in its oeconomy; after
flowering, instead of producing seeds, it throws out _gemmæ vivaces_, or
_bulbs_ of an unusual form, from the alæ of the leaves, which falling
off in the month of October, when the plant decays, produce young plants
the ensuing spring.

As it is distinguished from all the known species of _Lysimachia_ by
this circumstance, we have named it _bulbifera_ instead of _stricta_,
under which it appears in the _Hortus Kewensis_.

Some Botanists, whose abilities we revere, are of opinion that the
trivial names of plants, which are or should be a kind of abridgment of
the specific character, ought very rarely or never to be changed: we are
not for altering them capriciously on every trivial occasion, but in
such a case as the present, where the science is manifestly advanced by
the alteration, it would surely have been criminal to have preferred a
name, barely expressive, to one which immediately identifies the plant.

The _Lysimachia bulbifera_ is a hardy perennial, grows spontaneously in