LEGUMIXOS.E 



407 



First leaves compound, digitate, five-foliolate, petiolate, with 

 rather long petioles, alternate, with small stipules ; leaflets simple, 

 entire, lanceolate, acute, ciliate, 

 hairy, green, apparently one-nerved. 



Laburnum vulgare, Griseb. (fig. 

 266). 



Fruit a legume, linear, acute, 

 stipitate, much compressed laterally 

 and torulose when mature, irregu- 

 larly veined longitudinally or sub- 

 reticulate, thickened at the sutures, 

 silky, dehiscing longitudinally by 

 both sutures and somewhat twisted, 

 many-seeded. 



Seed persisting for some time on 

 the placentas of the unopened or 

 opened legume, horizontal, oblong, 

 tumid, hooked at the upper end ; 

 seed-coat crustaceous or very hard ; 

 testa black or deep brown, shining ; 

 tegmen pale-coloured, membranous ; 

 chalaza below the middle ; hilum 



FIG. 265. Lupinus sulphurous. 

 Nat. size. 



near or at the middle ; the micropyle above it on the ventral 

 aspect. 



Endosperm in the mature seed forming a thin layer surrounding 

 the embryo, but much thicker at the sides, that is on the backs of 

 the cotyledons, almost transparent 

 or colourless when dry, and very 

 hard, almost horny. 



Embryo comparatively very large, 

 curved, fleshy, yellow ; cotyledons 

 oblong, subfalcate, obtuse, slightly 

 notched or indented at about the 

 middle on one edge, unequal at the 

 base, with the larger auricle on the 

 same side as the radicle, while the 

 other side is cut away at the base 

 owing to the shape of the seed, plano- 

 convex, fleshy, each filling about 

 half the interior of the seed, except 

 that occupied by the radicle and endosperm, notched at one side 

 owing to a mass of endosperm under the hilum, and also slightly to 



\um vulgare, x 6. 

 Longitudinal section of seed : Ch, 

 chalaza ; H, hilum ; m, micropyle ; 

 R, radicle; OC, outer coat 

 (testa) ; 1C, inner coat (tegmen) ; 

 P, endosperm. 



