Lysimachia Bulbifera

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 [oe]conomy, after flowering, instead of producing seeds, it throws out gemmae vivaces, or bulbs of an unusual form, from the alae 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 boggy or swampy ground, and hence requires a moist soil. It flowers in August.