  GX 3+1 is a low-mass X-ray binary that is persistently bright since its
discovery in 1964. It was found to be an X-ray burster twenty years ago proving
that the compact object in this system is a neutron star. The burst rate is so
low that only 18 bursts were reported prior to 1996. The Wide Field Cameras on
BeppoSAX have, through a dedicated monitoring program on the Galactic center
region, increased the number of X-ray bursts from GX 3+1 by 61. Since GX 3+1
exhibits a slow (order of years) modulation in the persistent flux of about
50%, these observations opens up the unique possibility to study burst
properties as a function of mass accretion rate for very low burst rates. This
is the first time that bursts are detected from GX 3+1 in the high state. From
the analysis we learn that all bursts are short with e-folding decay times
smaller than 10 s. Therefore, all bursts are due to unstable helium burning.
Furthermore, the burst rate drops sixfold in a fairly narrow range of 2-20 keV
flux; we discuss possible origins for this.
