duced 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 _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.

[105]

TRADESCANTIA VIRGINICA. VIRGINIAN TRADESCANTIA, OR SPIDERWORT.

_Class and Order._

HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

_Generic Character._

_Calyx_ triphyllus. _Petala_ 3. _Filamenta_ villis articulatis.
_Capsula_ 3-locularis.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

TRADESCANTIA _Virginica_ erecta laevis, floribus congestis. _Linn. Syst.
Vegetab. ed. 14._ _Murr. p. 314. Sp. Pl. 411._

ALLIUM five moly Virginianum. _Bauh. Pin. 506._

PHALANGIUM Ephemerum Virginianum Joannis Tradescant.

The soon-fading Spiderwort of Virginia, or Tradescant his Spiderwort.
_Park. Parad. 152. 5. t. 151. f. 4._

[Illustration: No 105]

Under the name of _Spiderwort_, the old Botanists arranged many plants
of very different genera: the name is said to have arisen from the
supposed efficacy of some of these plants, in curing the bite of a kind
of spider, called _Phalangium_; not the _Phalangium_ of
LINNAEUS, which is known to be perfectly harmless: under this
name, PARKINSON minutely describes it; he mentions also, how he
first obtained it.

"This Spiderwort," says our venerable author, "is of late knowledge, and
for it the Christian world is indebted unto that painful, industrious
searcher, John Trad