VOL. IV.] Cont7'ibiitions to Western Botaiiy. 29 



Astragalus streptopzis Greene, Bull. Cal. Acad, i, 156. 

 This I take to be a form of A. Ntittatlianus . The only diflfer- 

 ence seems to be that the flowers are a little more numerous and 

 racemose and the leaflets are often retuse. I have specimens 

 with racemose flowers, and others with the pods wrong side up 

 by the twisting of the pedicels, and otherwise intermediate. 



Astragalus albens Greene, seems to be a good species but 

 very close to A. Nuttalliayius, though Watson places it near A. 

 tricariyiatus. It would pass for a form of A. Nuttallianus with 

 wider leaves and tips of pods. If this is a perennial it blooms 

 the first year. It is prostrate or ascending, six inches or more 

 long, many branched from the base; raceme loose; peduncles 

 twice as long as the leaves, which are one to two inches long, 

 petiole over one-half of the whole; keel purple tipped, very 

 broad and blunt, longer than the wings and equaling the broad 

 banner, two lines longer than the calyx and teeth, which are a 

 line long, teeth equaling the campanulate tube, pedicel nearly 

 as long as the tube; pod broadly linear, narrowed and pseudo- 

 stipitate at the base, broadest at apex, which is sharp-pointed 

 and triangular, laterally compressed, minutely and rather 

 sparsely short-pubescent, not at all silky except when very 

 3'oung, two-celled. Described from the type. 



Ast?-agalHs Rusbyi Greene, is a good species. I also collected 

 it in abundant material near Flagstafi", Ariz., 1884. 



Astragalus malacus Gray, var. LaynecB (Greene). A, Laynece 

 Greene, Bull. Cal. Acad, i, 157, belongs to the Micranthi. In 

 addition to the characters given I find the flowers are purple, one- 

 half an inch long; wings narrow, just surpassing the keel, and 

 banner but little longer; banner ascending; keel apparently with 

 an obtuse short beak; leaves almost oval, very villous-wooUy, the 

 hairs very fine, not much tangled in the type but much so in 

 Parish's specimens, attached by the small pustulate base, the 

 leaflets in the Mrs. Curran specimens are obovate; the flowers seem 

 to be reflexed and the pods erect; calyx campanulate, nigrescent, 

 three lines long, with very short, triangular, black-hairy teeth; 

 peduncles very stout, twice longer than the four-inch-long leaves, 

 or subscapiform, and eight inches long in Mrs. Curran's speci- 



