80 T R I 
T R I 
three spikes to the fruit], in Botany, a genus of the class 
decandria, order monogvnia, natural order of gruinales. R u- 
tacese. (Juss.) —Generic Character. Calyx: perianth five- 
parted, acute, a little shorter than the corolla. Corolla: petals 
five, oblong, obtuse, spreading. Stamina: filaments ten, awl- 
shaped, very small; anthers simple. Pistil: germ oblong, 
length of the stamens. Style none. Stigma headed. Peri¬ 
carp roundish, prickly, of five or ten capsules, gibbous on 
one side, often armed with three or four dagger-points, an¬ 
gular on the other, converging, with transverse cells. Seeds 
many, turbinate, oblong.— Essential Character. Calyx 
five-parted. Petals five, spread ing. Style none. Capsules 
five, gibbous, spiny, many-seeded. 
1. Tribulus maximus, or great caltrops.—Leaves about 
four-paired; outer leaflets larger; pericarps ten-seeded, 
awnless. This is an annual plant, with pretty thick, com¬ 
pressed, channelled stalks, which trail upon the ground, and 
are near two feet long.—Native of Jamaica, and some of the 
other islands in the West Indies. 
2. Tribulus lanuginosus, or woolly caltrops.—Leaves 
about five-paired; leaflets almost equal; seeds two-liorned. 
Stems ascending, long, round, hairy, jointed.—Native of 
Ceylon. 
3. Tribulus terrestris, or small caltrops.—Leaves six-paired, 
almost equal; seeds four-horned.—Native of most of the hot 
and temperate parts of the world •, as the south of Europe, 
Barbary, Siberia, the coast of Coromandel, China, Cochin- 
china, and the West Indies. 
4. Tribulus cistoides.—Leaves eight-paired; leaflets al¬ 
most equal.—Native of South America and the West India 
islands. Houston found it at the Havanna. Miller cultivated 
it before 1773. 
Propagation and Culture. —Sow the seeds of tribulus 
terrestris where they are intended to stand. The other sorts 
being natives of hot countries, are very tender, and the seeds 
must be sown on a hot-bed early in the spring. When the 
plants come up, transplant each into a separate pot, filled 
with rich light earth, plunge them into the tan-pit, and treat 
them in the same manner as other tender exotic plants; being 
careful to bring them forward as early as possible in the sum¬ 
mer, otherwise they will not perfect their seeds in this 
country. 
TRIBU'NAL, s. [ tribunal, Lat. and Fr.] The seat of a 
judge. 
I’ th’ market-place, on a tribunal silver’d, 
Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold 
Were publicly enthron’d. Shakspcare. 
A court of justice. 
Summoning arch-angels to proclaim 
Thy dread tribunal. Milton. 
TRI'BUNE, s. [ tribun , tribunus, Lat.] An officer of 
Rome chosen by the people. 
These are the tribunes of the people, 
The tongues o’ the common mouth: I do despise them. 
; Shakspeare. 
The commander of a Roman legion. 
The tribunes of the people were first established in the year 
of Rome 260. The first design of the creation was to shel¬ 
ter the people from the cruelties of usurers, and to engage 
them to quit the Aventine mount, whither they had retired 
in displeasure. 
The tribunes were, as it were, the heads and guardians of 
the people. They called assemblies of the people when 
they pleased ; and in those assemblies they frequently annul¬ 
led the decrees of the senate. Nothing could be concluded 
without their consent, which they expressed by subscribing 
the letter T at the bottom of the decree. They had it also in 
their power to prevent the execution of any decree, without 
giving any reason for it, and merely by subscribing Veto. 
This interposition was called intcrccssio. They sometimes 
even called the consuls and dictator to account for their con¬ 
duct before the people. The tribunes of the people, by 
virtue of their office, claimed and exercised a power of sum¬ 
moning the senate at any time, whenever the affairs of the 
people required it, though the consuls themselves were in the 
city. It has been taken for granted, on the authority of 
Valerius Maximus, that the tribunes of the people, on their 
first creation, were not admitted into the senate, but had seats 
placed for them before the door in the Vestibule. 
A. Gellius says that they were not made senators before 
the law of Atinius, who is supposed to be C. Atinius Labeo, 
tribune of the people, A. U. 623; but that cannot possibly 
be true, since it is evident from the authority of Dionysius, 
that near four- centuries before, the tribunes, by the mere 
weight and great power of their office, had gained an actual 
admission into the senate, within two years after their first 
creation; in which we find them debating and enforcing, 
with great warmth, the demands of the commons, for a 
liberty of intermarriages with the nobles, and the choice of a 
plebeian consul. So that the intent of this Atinian law 
could not be, as it is commonly understood, that the tribunes 
should be senators in virtue of their office, for that they had 
been from the beginning; but that for the future they should 
always be chosen out of the body of the senate, or, which is 
the same thing, out of those who had already borne the office 
of quaestor. A. Gell. xiv. 8. Vide Pighil. Aunales, A. U. 
623. Dionys. lib. x. 11. Dionys. xi. 57. Middleton of 
Rom. Sen. p. 45. 
Sylla the dictator, was the first who presumed to put a 
stop to the encroachments of the tribunes, A. U. 672 ; but 
under Cotta, the consul, they recovered part of their power, 
A. U. 679; and in 683, Pompey the Great re-established 
them in the possession of their ancient privileges. Their 
power subsisted till the time of Julius Caesar. And in the 
year of Rome 731, the senate by a decree transferred the 
v'hole authorily of tribunes of the people to Augustus and his 
successors, so that they had little more than the name and 
form of magistrates; whence the emperors were said to be 
tribunitia potesfate donati. Accordingly, Augustus him¬ 
self was tribune for thirty-seven years; Tiberius assumed the 
same quality ; as likewise did his successor; signifying the 
year of their tribunate on their medals and coins; but their 
design in it was only to possess themselves of all the autho¬ 
rity, that there might be nobody to oppose them. 
TRI'BUNESHIP, s. The office of a tribune.—What am 
I the wiser for knowing that Trajan was in the fifth year of 
his tribuneship, when he entertained the people with such a 
horse-race or bull-baiting? Addison. 
TRIBUNI'TIAL, or Tribuni'tious, adj. [tribunitius, 
Lat.] Suiting a tribune; relating to a tribune.—Let them 
not come in multitudes, or in a tribunitious manner; for 
that is to clamour counsels, not to inform. Bacon. 
TRIBUR, a small town of the west of Germany, in Hesse 
Darmstadt; 7 miles south-east of Mentz, and 30 north of 
Manheim. Population 1300. 
TllIBUTARIOS, Los, an island of the Atlantic ocean, 
situated near the north coast of Cuba. 
TRPBUTARY, adj. [tributaire, Fr.; tributarius, Lat.] 
Paying tribute as an acknowledgment of submission to a 
master. 
Whilst Malvern, king of hills, fair Severn overlooks. 
Attended on in state with tributary brooks. Drayton. 
Subject; subordinate. 
These he, to grace his tributary gods, 
By course commits to several government. 
And gives them leave to wear their saphire crowns, 
And wield their little tridents. Milton. 
Paid in tribute.—Nor flattery tunes these tributary lays. 
Concannen. 
TRI'BUTARY, s. One who pays a stated sum in ac¬ 
knowledgment of subjection.—All the people therein shall 
be tributaries unto thee, and serve thee. Dcut. 
TRI'BUTE, s. [tribut, Fr.; tributum , Lat.] Payment 
made in acknowledgment; subjection.—They that received 
tribute money said, Doth not your master pay tribute? 
St. Matt. 
To TRI'BUTE, u. a. To pay as tribute.—An amorous 
trifler, 
