82 MR. R. H. COMPTON : AN INVESTIGATION OF THE 
value in relation to the prostrate habit of so many species ; but this will not 
account for T. cretica, which has an erect habit of growth. (Compare Lotus 
Tetragonolobus.) It is possible that here the highness of transition is a 
hereditary tribal character, and this may be the case also in the Lote. 
LOTES. 
This tribe includes annual and perennial herbs and a few small shrubs. 
The seedlings, so far as recorded, are all epigeal, the cotyledons being 
borne some distance above the ground. The hypocotyl is often slender, but 
in Lotus Tetragonolobus it attains 1'9 mm. in diameter and sometimes reaches 
50 mm. in length. The cotyledons are foliaceous and not usually fleshy ; 
there is often a pronounced joint between petiole and lamina which serves, 
e. р. in L. Tetragonolobus, for nyctitropie movements. (Су. Trifolieæ.) 
The type of symmetry varies much, as in the Trifolieæ. Some species are 
persistently diarch, others triarch, and others tetrarch. In Dorycnium 
hirsutum we find all three conditions occurring in the root; in the case of 
triarch seedlings a tetrarch symmetry is assumed in the upper part of the 
hypocotyl; in the case of diarchy the same thing also occurs, a triarch stage 
being passed through; in all cases the structure of the upper part of the 
hypocotyl is founded on a tetrareh plan. Within the same genus the type of 
symmetry may vary ; as in Anthyllis, where the structure may be diarch or 
tetrarch, and, Lotus, where it may be triarch or tetrarch. In cases of diarchy 
each cotyledon takes one of the two polar protoxylems ; in tetrarchy each 
takes the same with the addition of two halves of the intercotyledonary 
protoxylems ; in the one case of persistent triarchy (Lotus corniculatus), the 
third xylem becomes almost extinct below the cotyledons, but is shared 
between them. 
The cotyledon traces are on the whole similar throughout the tribe, and 
resemble those of the Trifolieee. Whatever the symmetry the cotyledon 
trace consists of a median polar protoxylem and a pair of collateral bundles ; 
in seedlings with a tetrarch phase the half-lateral protoxylems are seen 
attached to the edge of these collateral bundles. 
The transition appears to be persistently high or intermediate-high ; in all 
cases root-like structure obtains in the lower half of the hypocotyl, and often 
for a considerable distance higher. The highness of the transition is 
remarkable in Lotus Tetragonolobus, which isa large seedling, whose size 
would lead one to expect a much lower transition. (Cf. Trigonella cretica, 
among the Trifoliez.) 
GALEGEX, 
The majority of the species of this tribe are perennial herbs or shrubs ; a 
few are small trees or annual herbs. 
Germination is epigeal, with (according to Lubbock, 1892, p. 390) some 
tendency to become hypogeal. Тһе hypocotyl is usually slender, often 
