216 MR. W. B. HEMSLEY ON THE 
by close examination. Nearly a thousand species of Astragalus 
are described from the Old World, chiefly from Central Asia, 
and there are perhaps two hundred in America, extending from 
the Arctic regions southward through the Andes. About two 
hundred species of Oxytropis have been described, and they are 
confined to the northern hemisphere. Thus we have here another 
parallel to Artemisia and Tanacetum, and a third may be found 
in the prominence of the two groups in the vegetation of Tibet ; 
but the Astragali generally have much more conspicuous flowers 
than their counterparts in the Composite. Notwithstanding 
the fact that the Astragali are exceedingly numerous in species 
in Central Asia, we have only fourteen from Tibet. This may 
be due to the fact that similar species were passed by as the 
same as others already collected. On the other hand, the tact 
that some of the species are represented in every collection, or 
nearly so, stands against there being much confusion in this 
direction. To give an example: Oxytropis microphylla, DC., is 
in every collection save Littledale’s, and from the most distant 
localities. The specimens vary in having leaves and peduncles 
from one to six inches in length; and a specimen collected by 
Pike must have had a thick, woody root that penetrated the 
ground to the depth of at least two feet. The majority of these 
Astragali may be described as exceedingly diminutive dense 
shrubs, having relatively thick branches due to the persistent 
bases of the greatly crowded leaves. There are others, such as 
A. tribulifolius, which have slender, trailing branches, apparently 
of only one season’s duration. Another type of growth is 
furnished by A. Heydei, Baker, which has also deep, permanent 
root-stocks, from which annual branches are produced some 
distance down among the stones, which bear a few leaves and a 
cluster of flowers just above the medium in which the plant is 
growing. This last type of growth is exhibited by a number of 
other Tibetan plants, notably by Corydalis Hendersoni, Hemsl., 
Capsella Thoimsoni, Hook. f., Cochlearia scapiflora, Hook. f. et 
Thoms., Braya sinensis, Hemsl., Thermopsis inflata, Camb., 
Microula tibetica, Maxim., Nepeta longibracteata, Beuth., Draco- 
cephalum heterophyllum, Beuth., and Euphorbia tibetana, Boiss. 
GRAMINER and CYPERACE®. 
. 
. The total number of grasses Is thirty species, belonging te 
urtee » Qs ° : . a] 
curteen genera; of sedges nine, belonging to three genera. To 
these may be added one rush, making 2 total of forty species 
