30 Contributions to Western Botany. [zoE 



mens; stipules large, connate below, acuminate and hyaline. 

 In Mr. Parish's specimen the pod is nearly' two inches long, 

 linear, contracted at base and sessile, sulcate dorsally, and dorsal 

 septum intruded to the middle of the cell, apex of pod acuminate 

 to an almost thread-like tip which is laterally compressed, pod 

 slightly obcompressed, finely corrugated, coriaceous, rather 

 sparsely villous-wooUy when ripe, ventral suture rather promi- 

 nent; pedicels very short; bracts ovate and rather large. In 

 Mrs. Curran's specimen the pod is completely divided by the 

 intrusion of the dorsal sulcus from the base nearly to the apex, 

 much obcompressed by necessity from the curving of the pod 

 into a circle, ventral suture ridged; perennial and many branched 

 from the base, erect, stem very short. 



The above descriptions are drawn from the types. I find that 

 the pods have much shorter pubescence which is more generally 

 appressed; the plants are less branching and peduncles more 

 inclined to be subscapose, and the flowers are more inclined to 

 be racemose; the sulcus is more open and wider; pods narrower 

 than A. malaais. Specimens collected by Mr. Brandegee, at 

 Inyo, Cal., April 15, 1892, clearly connect the two. The flower- 

 ing specimen of the Herb. Cal. Acad, has white or ochroleucous 

 flowers with only a tinge of purple at the tip of the parts; calyx 

 that of A. Laynea and pods of A. malacus with the short 

 pubescence on them oi A. Lay7iece; pods not at all obcompressed 

 but decidedly compressed; general habit of A. Laynecz. The 

 fruiting specimen on the same sheet has nearly the calyx of A. 

 matacus and its branching caulescent habit, but the pods are 

 those-of ^. Layne^. I also have specimens of A. vialaais from 

 Western Nevada with pods much like those of A. LaynecB but 

 nothing to warrant the reference that Mr. Brandegee's specimens 

 require. I find in Mr. Brandegee's specimens that the keel is 

 as often without a beak as with, and so that character fails. 



Astragalus Gibbsii Kell. {A. cyrtoides Gray.) The type 

 in the Herb. Cal. Acad, has eight to ten pairs of obovate-cuneate 

 leaflets which are so deeply notched as to be obcordate occasion- 

 ally, at other times they are scarcely notched at all, seven lines 

 or less long, four lines or less wide, shortly petiolulate; petiole 

 less than an inch long; stems and peduncles grooved; corolla 



