288 Contributions to Western Botany. . [zoe 



pods without mucilaginous matter. This is quite common from the 

 Wasatch Mountains to the western side of the Fish Spring Moun- 

 tains, in Western Utah. West of there it is replaced by the next. 

 It grows on gravelly hillsides. Pods purple spotted, thin and acute 

 at each end. 



Astragalus Beckvvithii Torrey var. purpureus. This plant, 

 though it has all the marks of a good species, I do not feel like de- 

 scribing as such till one or two things can be settled about it. Ban- 

 ner purple, fiddle shaped, notched ai top and broad at base, arched 

 to nearly 90° and abruptly, white spot fan shaped and streaked 

 deeply (to the base on the sides) with purple; sulcus ^ circle ex- 

 cept at the base, where it is semicircular, fusiform longitudinally; 

 the purple streaks on the white spot are united at the base of the 

 sulcus into a purple ring; the banner is bent at a point 2 lines be- 

 yond the calyx teeth; wings obliquely ovate, rounded and obtuse at 

 the apex, white from the tip to the keel and purplish beyond, up- 

 wardly curved, 2 lines wide, 2 lines longer than keel; keel purple 

 and very dark at tip, incurved 100° to base, blunt. Whole flower 

 curved upwards, purple and never yellowish except when old. The 

 other characters are leaflets 6 to 12 pairs, inclined to be diamond 

 shaped, 6 lines or less long and over ^ as wide, rounded, truncate 

 or retuse; stems ascending, angled as well as petioles and pe- 

 duncles; flowers 6 to 10, at first in a head but lengthening to i to 2 

 inches; penduncles shorter than the leaves; calyx as in the type, 

 yellowish but with nigrescent hairs, tube 2 lines by i^; teeth i 

 hne more, subulate from a broad base, almost black; calyx spread- 

 ing in flower and reflexed in fruit, but the .stipe (equaling the teeth) 

 bent upwards so that the pod is nearly vertical; pod acuminate at 

 each end, inwardly curved ventrally, so as to make ^ to ^^ the arc 

 of a circle, i)^ to i inch long, dorsal sulcus intruded ^ line, sulcate 

 dorsally always at base, but not in the upper half when pod is much 

 curved; when nearly straight and only acute at base and apex 

 (which occasionally occurs) the pod is deeply sulcate, finely cor- 

 rugated, cartilaginous, fi led with a mucilaginous pulp when imma- 

 ture; seeds flattish, nearly round, with a prominent hilum, i line 

 wide. Fully mature pods are usually obcompressed so as to be 

 flat, while at the ventral suture they are compressed, making the 

 cross section T shaped, usually purple spotted. This differs from 



