72 A New Astragalus. 
Being a lover of deep water it has lived and died through the 
ages, in Drake’s Bay or contiguous areas, until its habitat was 
intruded upon by a dredge, a modern machine for catching fish, 
and which, by chance, at the same time laid bare a surprising peice 
of biologic history. A long time ago was the Miocene age! If this 
shell is truly of Miocene times, then it has been sustained from then 
until now through some of its progeny always finding a suitable 
habitation to dwell in notwithstanding the vast upheavals and de- 
pressions that have alternated the coast line of California since the 
Miocene period. 
A NEW ASTRAGALUS. 
4 re 3 BRANDEGEE. 
ASTRAGALUS COCCINEUS. Perennial ceespitose ‘densely white- 
hirsute: petioles nearly as long as the leaves ; leaflets, 12-15 oval to 
obovate, obtuse, 6-10 mm. long; stipules triangular-lanceolate: pe- 
duncles considerably surpassing the leaves; flowers numerous shortly 
pedicellate, clustered near the top; calyx cylindrical slender, the 
linear nearly equal teeth 3 the length of the tube: corolla spread- 
ing, bright red, 35-40 mm. long, double the length of the calyx; 
banner lanceolate: the oblong keel equalling it in length, very shal- 
low and littfe curved not hiding the stamens, which are free for 
nearly one-fourth their length; keel and banner barely emarginate: 
pods an inch long resembling those of 4. Purshii, but not mature 
and exact shape therefore not determinable. 
Collected near the summit of the Inyo Range by Mr. G. P. Rix- 
ford, and by myself at Lone Pine on the slopes of Mt. Whitney. 
This is without doubt the plant collected by C. R. Orcutt on the 
eastern slope of the mountains, bordering the Colorado desert, in 
San Diego County, for which Dr. Parry in West. Am. Scientist, 
vil, 10, doubtfully suggested the name Astragalus Purshii var. (?) 
coccineus. It is by far the handsomest Astragalus I have ever seen, 
forming in favorable locations hemispherical tufts a foot in diameter, 
