178 Rydberg: Notes on Fabaceae — I 



for the sake of convenience. He has not treated me more 

 harshly in this respect than he has others; for he has reduced 

 to varieties or synonyms the species of other botanists, such as 

 Astragalus lingulatus Sheld., A. exiliflorus A. Nels., Homolobus 

 caespitosus Nutt., H. canescens Nutt., H. brachycarpus Nutt., 

 A. amphidoxus Blankinship, H. dispar Nutt., H. juhceus Nutt., 

 A. junciformis A. Nels., A. diversif alius Gray, A. strigosns 

 Coult. & Fish., A. Palliseri Gray, and A. acerbus Sheld. In 

 this way he has reduced half of Nuttall's species, all of A. 

 Nelson's and all but one of Sheldon's. Is such a reduction 

 warranted? 



I once criticised Brand for his work on the Polemoniaceae, 

 because he did not try to find what the types really represented. 

 May I not now have the right to criticise Macbride for the 

 same laxities? In his paper on Homalobus he reduced my H. 

 microcarpus, H. proximus, and H. Salidae, although he admitted 

 that he had not seen the types; he reduced also my H. dementis, 

 II. stipitalus and H. uniflorus, without including the types 

 among the specimens cited, thus implying that he did not have 

 them before him. The same can be said about Sheldon's 

 Astragalus lingulatus and A. acerbus. Except in the case of A. 

 hngulatus the types of all these species are readily accessible to 

 anyone who may wish to see them. 



As I have not found it necessary to change essentially my 

 grouping of the species from that published in my Flora of the 

 Rocky Mountains, I shall keep the same groups as there. I 

 shall also omit the keys except in cases where the species are 

 from the Pacific coast. Keys would be superfluous, since my 

 own are found in my Flora of the Rocky Mountains and since 

 Macbride has given a good one in the paper cited above. 



A. Caespitosi 



1 . Homalobus caespitosus Nutt. This is the most common 

 and best known of the group, and its nomenclature has not 

 been much confused. Occasionally the leaves are two- or three- 

 foliolate instead of simple. H. canescens Nutt. is only a more 

 silvery form of the species. Gray, who merged Homolobus 

 in Astragalus, recognized the identity of the two, retaining 

 the specific name caespitosus, although there was an earlier 



