LIBRARY 

 NEVV YORK 

 BOTANICAL 



Notes on Fabaceae — I 



Per Axel Rydberg 

 HOMALOBUS Nutt. 



For several years I have worked on genera of the F~abaceae 

 for the North American Flora. Two parts containing the tribe 

 Psoraleae have already been published, and the manuscript for 

 the Indigoferae and a large part of the Galegeae is ready. My 

 work has taken me to Astragalus and related genera. I have 

 heard a rumor that M. E. Jones has been working on an illustrat- 

 ed revision of Astragalus, and I wish that this had been published 

 so that I could have availed myself of it in my studies. It 

 would perhaps have helped me to avoid some of the errors which 

 are so likely to creep in. 



There is little room for critical notes in the Flora, and yet 

 notes of this character are necessary for a proper understanding 

 of my disposition of genera and for a just appreciation of the 

 amount of work that I have done on the group. It is my 

 intention, therefore, to publish a series of preliminary notes 

 in order to thresh out any unavoidable criticism, which might 

 come from certain quarters, before my final monograph is 

 published. If I should criticise any fellow botanist in this 

 undertaking I do it in order to bring out the facts. 



Just before the present paper was completed there appeared 

 an article by J. F. Macbride, entitled: A revision of Astragalus, 

 subgenus Homalobus, in the Rocky Mountains.* Now it may 

 perhaps seem superfluous for me to go into details and publish 

 another paper on the same subject so soon. So far as generic 

 and specific limits are concerned, 1 do not think that either 

 Macbride or Jones can ever agree with me. It surprises me, 

 however, that so many of my species, even some that had been 

 sneered at by Jones, have been accepted by Macbride. That 

 he should have reduced some of my species to varieties I might 

 have expected, since I do not see where to draw lines between 

 species and varieties and prefer a binomial name to a trinomial 



* Contr. Gray Herb. II. 65: 28-39. 1922. 



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