BULLETIN 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 
Ce 
A Study of the Genus Psoralea in America. 
By ANNA MuRRAY VAIL. 
The genus Psoralea was first established bv Linnzus in the 
second edition of the Gen. Plant., 358 (1742) and credited to Royen. 
In the first edition of the Sp. Plant., 762 (1753), eight species 
are described, only one of which is credited to America, and is 
Probably an introduced plant from the Island of Madeira.* 
DeCandolle in Prodr. 2: 218 credits fifteen species to the 
: United States, Canada and Mexico, some of which, however, have 
€n reduced. 
Bentham and Hooker in Gen. Plant. 1: 491, give thirty species 
to North America and six to South America. 
In his Rev. Gen. Pl., p. 193, O. Kuntze transfers all the species 
of Psoralea to the Genus Lotodes, Siegesbeck, FI. Petrop. 66 (17 36). 
oa An attempt has been made in this study to base the classifica- 
tion as much as possible on the fruit characters, which are very 
marked. The genus is accepted as described by Bentham and _ 
Hooker. idles ee 
_ FALMAT LY 3-5-FOLIOLATE (RARELY 7-FOLIOLATE). 
erbs, erect or assurgent, branching (except P. cyphocalyx). 
: Flowers small (5-8 mm.). 
Pods globose. 
Le flet: . er : j wey : a 
afle Bathe pods g) boxe ti bet teiactalae 
Leaflets filiform-linear except the basal ones, pods glabrous. ie 
a a, B micrantha. 
Leaflets obovate, cuneate-obovate or lanceolate-oblong, pods lees: 
Psoralea Americana. 
