) 



i 



Nelson : New Plants from Wyoming 9 



on Limestone Range, Black Hills, Weston Co., near the South 

 Dakota line, July 30, 1897. Here it occurred in great profusion 

 though in a day's drive through that region it was met with but 



once. 



Astragalus brevicaulis 



Caespitose, the spreading leaves forming a small mat 8-12 cm. 

 in diameter, appressed silvery -pubescent throughout, perennial from 

 a small, vertical woody tap-root which bears at its summit a caudex 

 of a few short, thickish branches : leaves crowded on the crowns, 

 the persistent stipules and petioles clothing the branches of the 

 caudex; leaflets usually 5, closely approximated at the end of the 

 slender, 2-4 cm. long petioles, from obovate to oblong, 5-10 mm. 

 long : peduncles exceeding the leaves, i -several-flowered, prostrate- 

 ascending ; flowers purple, large for the plant; calyx purplish, cam- 

 panulo-cylindric, tube about 5 mm. long, generally split nearly to the 

 base by the developing pod, teeth about half as long : banner 1 5 mm. 

 long, blade orbicular, 10 mm. in diameter; wings nearly as long 

 as the banner, blade oblong, 2-lobcd at apex, the basal lobe large, 

 paralleling the long slender claw ; keel shorter, rounded-obtuse ; 

 pod minutely pubescent, sessile, 2-celled or nearly so, falcate, 

 deeply sulcate dorsally, cross section obcordate, i 5 mm. or more 

 in length, 4-5 mm. broad : ovules 20-30 ; seeds fewer. 



This species seems to be most closely allied to A. calycosits 



r 



Torn, but its purple flowers, larger falcate pod will serve for its 

 immediate separation. It is a rare plant of the desert region of 

 southern Wyoming, occurring sparingly on gravelly ridges. Type 

 specimen no. 4601, from near Ft. Bridger, June 9, 1898. 



Astragalus junciformis 



Perennial from a deep-set root, the caudex slender-branched, 

 cinereous-pubescent: stems usually several, more or less panicu- 

 lately branched throughout their length, 2-4 dm. high, often 

 somewhat striate: stipules small, triangular; leaves either re- 

 duced to a naked, slender petiole and rachis, 4-7 cm. long, or 

 bearing 5-7 distant, linear-oblong leaflets, 8-15 mm. long: pe- 

 duncles equalling or exceeding the leaves, from very few- to many- 

 flowered ; flowers about 10 mm. long, orchroleucous : standard 

 short and broad, almost reniform, the claw short ; keel broad 

 with an elongated but blunt apex : calyx pubescent with inter- 

 mingled dark hairs, campanulate, teeth minute : pod strictly one- 

 celled, neither suture much thickened, compressed, linear-oblong, 

 straight, probably about 3 cm. long (fully mature legume not a 

 hand), pubescence similar to that of the stem ; pedicels short, di- 



