The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 3 | Page 9

South of Europe, is an annual, and, like the Sweet Alyssum, generally cultivated in our gardens, and most deservedly so indeed, for when a large assemblage of its blossoms are expanded by the rays of the sun, their brilliancy is such as almost to dazzle the eyes of the beholder.
Those annuals which bear our winter's frosts without injury, are advantageously sown in the autumn; for by that means they flower more early, and their seeds ripen with more certainty; the present plant is one of those: it usually sows itself, and is therefore raised without any trouble.
It begins to flower in May and June, and continues to enliven the garden till August or September.

[103]
PELARGONIUM ACETOSUM. SORREL CRANE'S-BILL.
Class and Order.
MONADELPHIA HEPTANDRIA.
Generic Character.
Calyx 5-partitus: lacinia suprema definente in tubulum capillarem, nectariferum, secus pedunculum decurrentem. Cor. 5-petala, irregularis. Filam. 10. in ?qualia: quorum 3 (raro 5) castrata. Fructus, 5-coccus, rostratus: rostra spiralia, introrsum barbata. L'Herit. Geran.
Specific Character and Synonyms.
PELARGONIUM acetosum umbellis paucifloris, foliis obovatis crenatis glabris carnosis, petalis linearibus. _L'Herit. Monogr de Geran. n. 97._
GERANIUM acetosum calycibus monophyllis, foliis glabris obovatis carnosis crenatis, caule fruticoso laxo. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14. Murr. p. 613. Sp. Pl. p. 947._
GERANIUM Africanum frutescens, folio crasso et glauco acetos? sapore. Comm. pr?l. 51. t. 1.
[Illustration: No 103]
Mons. L'HERITIER, the celebrated French Botanist, who in the number, elegance, and accuracy of his engravings, appears ambitious of excelling all his contemporaries, in a work now executing on the family of Geranium, has thought it necessary to divide that numerous genus into three, viz. Erodium, Pelargonium, and Geranium.
The Erodium includes those which LINN?US (who noticing the great difference in their appearance, had made three divisions of them) describes with five fertile stamina, and calls Myrrhina; the Pelargonium those with seven fertile stamina, his Africana; the Geranium, those with ten fertile stamina, his Batrachia.
They are continued under the class Monadelphia, in which they now form three different orders, according to the number of their stamina, viz. Pentandria, Heptandria, and Decandria. If the principles of the Linn?an system had been strictly adhered to, they should perhaps have been separated into different classes; for though the Pelargonium is Monadelphous, the Geranium is not so; in consequence of this alteration, the Geranium peltatum and radula, figured in a former part of this work, must now be called Pelargonium peltatum, and radula, and the Geranium Reichardi be an Erodium.
The leaves of this plant have somewhat the taste of sorrel, whence its name, it flowers during most of the summer, and is readily propagated by cuttings. MILLER mentions a variety of it with scarlet flowers.
It is a native of the Cape, and known to have been cultivated in Chelsea Garden, in the year 1724.

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LYSIMACHIA BULBIFERA. BULB-BEARING LOOSESTRIFE.
Class and Order.
PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.
Generic Character.
Corolla rotata. Capsula globosa, mucronata, 10-valvis.
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 gemm? vivaces, or bulbs of an unusual form, from the al? 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.

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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 l?vis, 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