VOL. Iv.] Contributions to Western Botany. 269 
when fully developed and as they fade or become old they turn 
to a rich cream color. I have never yet seen a truly yellow 
flower even ina herbarium specimen. It is one of the earliest 
spring flowers, coming out along with Cymopterus montanus, and 
is out of bloom in a month or less. I will give a detailed 
account of field studies on this plant in a later issue. 
Through the kindness of Miss Eastwood and Mrs. Brandegee 
I have been enabled to examine all the material of the Zriocarpi 
in the Herbarium of the California Academy. Of A. Purshit 
I have seen material from Wyoming, Washington, and the Sierras 
as far south as Tehachapi and Tejon Mountain, California. 
Astragalus Purshii, Douglas var. ¢¢uctus, n. var. leaves very 
broadly obovate, small; flowers purple, otherwise as in the type. 
Edgewood near Mt. Shasta and also in Ventura County, Cal., 
Brandegee; Olanche and Keeler, Inyo County, Cal., Brandegee; 
the former also by Miss Eastwood, Soda Springs, Nevada County, 
Cal., 1882 Jones, and an intermediate form June 16, 1882, Austin 
Nevada, Jones. ‘This seems to belong to western Nevada and the 
Sierra Nevada region. It should be remembered that the type 
of A. Purshii is stemless. 
Astragalus Purshit, Douglas var. longilobus, n. var. Calyx 
lobes filiform nearly equaling the keel; peduncles as long as the 
leaves; otherwise asin the type. ‘Tehachapi, June, 1884, Brande- 
gee; Aurum, Nevada, May 4, 1893, Jones (not in fruit). Also 
Tanesville, Cal., June 30, 1892, Brandegee. This has very long 
stipules and pod of A. éxflexus, but the woolliness of 4. Purshit. 
Connecting forms occur, but as yet I have seen no specimens 
which I could not at once separate from 4. inflexus. 
Astragalus inflexus Douglas. A plant in the Herbarium of 
the California Academy by Canby from Washington, 1883, has a 
stem six inches high, with six leaves or joints from a closely 
branched root; whole plant white with long and very fine hairs, 
having a floccose appearance, but the hairs are not much tangled; 
stems zigzag; proper petiole an inch or less long; stipules and 
bracts the same as in A. Purshit, but usually wider; six lines 
long, hyaline, tapering from base to a fine, threadlike point; 
leaflets ten to fifteen pairs, elliptical, six lines long, sharply apic- 
