TETRAGONOL'OBUS PURPU'REUS. 
DEEP RED TETRAGONOLOBUS. 
Class. Order. 
DIAUELPHIA. DECANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
LEGOMINOSJE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
S. Europe. 
1 foot. 
July, Aug. 
Annual. 
in 1596. 
No. 375. 
The word, T etragonolobu s, has been compounded 
from the Greek, to designate the peculiar four- 
angled character of the seed pod. Thus, tetra, 
four; GONiA, angle; lobos, pod. Purpurea, in 
the Latin, is not quite synonymous with purple; but 
signifies dark red, or purple. 
This richly-coloured annual was long known as 
the Lotus tetragonolobus of our gardens, but it has 
been divided from the genus Lotus by modern bota- 
nists, merely on account of its pods being square, 
whilst those plants possessing the same characters, 
but with round pods, are retained as the true Lotus. 
It has been noticed in the works of most of the 
old English and continental botanists, who have 
given it descriptive names, just as fancy dictated ; 
though, in most instances, they had regard to the 
four-square formation of the pod; or, as Johnson in 
his Gerard says, the four thin welts, or skins, which 
make them seem four-square. 
It should be sown in the spring with other hardy 
annuals. In small circles, from a foot to eighteen 
inches diameter, and supported with a few short 
sticks, it is seen to greatest advantage. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 4, 392. 
