(244 Utah Plants. | [ZoE 
This grows in the sand along or near Grand River, in eastern 
Utah. Collected May 2, 1890. The name indicates the state of 
mind a person is in who tries to invent a name for a new species of 
this immense genus without getting one already occupied. 
PSORALEA CASTOREA Watson and C. mephitica Watson, are 
identical, I think, as the characters given for mephitica all appear on 
plants with the same root as P. castorea. These plants seem to grow 
in large patches and the thickened roots go straight down several 
feet and then branch off horizontally and appear to be all con- 
nected. I will add more about this Psoralea at another time. 
CERCOCARPUS LEDIFOLIUS Nuttall. Since I became convinced 
that the C. in¢vicatus of Watson was only a form of this species, 
some ten years ago, I have been specially interested in this genus, 
and last year I erected a new species in it. This year Ihave | 
had the best of opportunities for an extensive study of the genus | 
in western Utah and eastern Nevada, and have collected multitudes 
of forms which I think will clear up this very unsatisfactory genus. 
C. ledifolius comes down to an altitude of 7,000 feet in the 
Wasatch mountains and runs up to over 8,000 feet altitude. It is a 
densely branched and scrawny shrub on rocky places, and where 
the moisture is greater and the soil better it straightens up and is 
’ 20 feet high and tree-like. In eastern Nevada where the moisture 
is far less it grows at 8,0co to 9,000 feet altitude, and is generally 
shrubby. Near the East Humboldt mountains it occasionally comes 
alittle lower toward the edges of the lower foothills, but never in 
the valleys which are here seldom less than 6,000 feet above the sea. 
I have seen the trees 4o feet high there; with a trunk 1% feet in 
diameter and so well formed as to make good posts. The leaves” 
and flowers do not vary much except at the lowest altitudes. . 
CERCOCARPUS LEDIFOLIUS Nutt. var. INTRICATUS Jones ( C. intri- 
catus Watson), was first found at about 6,000 feet altitude in the Wa- 
satch mountains in American Fork Cafion, by Watson, on the face of _ 
precipitous cliffs where it still abounds. I botanized there in 1880. 
and by going up the cafion to where C ledifolius occurs at 8,000. 
feet altitude I found a complete transition to C. /edifolius, and there- 
fore reduced the species to dedifolius. The plant at the lower al- 
titudes was a tangled shrub 2 to 3 feet high, with revolute, linear, 
smooth and shining leaves on the upper side, small flowers and — 
