VOL. IV.] Contribiiiioiis to Western Botany. 25 



a character of great weight so far as my knowledge of the genus 

 goes, yet it may be variable in the southern and hot regions. 



Astragal7is fastidiosus (Kell.) Greene. Phaca fastidia 

 Kell. Hesperian iv, 145. I doubt if this is a valid species. 

 It is too near A. airtipes, and all of the species given in the 

 Botany of California along with A. airtipes are founded on weak 

 distinctions. This species is like its relatives, not only inclined 

 to be shrubby at base but most manifestly so. The leaflets are 

 two to six or more lines long, obovate to almost linear, obtuse 

 or retuse, narrowed at base and about nineteen; peduncles at 

 least six inches long; calyx teeth shorter than the tube or not 

 longer; pod semi-ovate, narrowed but not acuminate at base, 

 apex acuminate or rather short-pointed, incurved; stems densely 

 white-hairy; leaves almost glabrous to white-pubescent. 

 Described from type collected on Cedros Island, by E- L. Greene. 



Astragalus pachypus, Greene. This most distinct and very 

 interesting species would be referred to the A. nudus section if 

 it were not almost two-celled. This frequent finding of plants 

 that destroy all our notions of classification into Astragalus 

 proper and Phaca, leads one to hope that the division of the pod 

 will take a minor place, so that species that are otherwise related 

 may be grouped together and not widely separated, as they are at 

 present in the common methods of classification. In addition to 

 the published description I find that the pod is very much 

 laterally compressed and is one-celled at the apex. 



Astragalus collinus, (Dougl.) var. Calif orniais, Gray. A. 

 Californicus Greene, Bull. Cal. Acad., iii, 157. This plant 

 reminds one forcibly of A. Drummondi in habit. It is erect; 

 leaves without a petiole to speak of, two to three inches long; 

 leaflets about ten pairs, set very close together, three-quarters of 

 an inch long, obtuse or emarginate; peduncles about three times 

 as long as the leaves; calyx campanulate or occasionally very 

 shortly cylindric, tube two lines long, one and one-half lines 

 wide, teeth one-half a line long and broadly triangular, 

 calyx rather sparsely short-hairy, yellowish; legume vetch-like, 

 one and one-half inches long and two and one-half lines wide, 

 acuminate at base, on a stipe four lines long, sharply acute at 



