9 
almost straight but the general characters of its group are not given 
His Vesicarii contains no North American species. The chief character 
is inflated calyx. Our A. oocalycis could be placed there. His Sesamei 
contains no North American species. His Onobrychoidei contains 
such wholly diverse species as A. caryocarpus (crassicarpus), Miss- 
ouriensis, Labradoricus, adsurgens (nitidus), which belong to at least 
three distinct groups. His Dissitiflori contains only A. gracilis. His 
Hypoglottidei contains A. bidentatus and Hypoglottis (agrestis) which 
species are not at all related. 
From this it is evident that no conception of North American 
reiationship in the genus was in the mind of DeCandolle, 
Phaca was kept up by him to contain such diverse species as 
A. alpinus, triflorus, villosus, caespitosus, mollis, the Inflati, andinus, 
etc, 
The only other serious attempt at classification worthy of mention 
is that of Torrey and Gray in their Flora of North America, but they 
only copied DeCandolle. Hooker in his Flora did the same. 
GRAY’S REVISION. 
Dr. Asa Gray in Proc. Am. Acad. 6 1864 made the first renl 
attempt at proper classification of the genus as to North America. 
In 1871 Watson, profiting by a year’s field work in the West, ampli- 
fied it somewhat and corrected some details but for the most part 
followed Gray. This was also the first attempt to group the species 
renetically starting according to Gray’s universal rule from the most 
developed and going to the least altered species, 
Gray’s system wes based on the fundamental idea of one and 
two-celled pods as seperating the two series Astragalus proper and 
Phaca. Astreg^lis was the more developed because of being 2-celled 
and was based on the greater intrusion of the dorsal suture if the 
rods were not fully 2-celled. Phaca was unfortunately based on the 
sıtures being not at all intruded or the ventral the more produced. 
Had he made three series, one to co^t^in Astragalus proper, the other 
Phace as defined by Linnaeus in his srecies of the Sp. Pl. and rep- 
rosented by A. alpinus (Phaca alpina) to contain those with the 
ventral suture the most intruded. and the third series which we may 
call Homalobus with nerve-like sutures not at all intruded he would 
Fave had a set of series which could not be improved upon, but I do 
not think anything is gained by attempting to separate the genus 
into three series. 
Under Astragalus proper we find him making 16 sections. His 
supposedly most developed species were the Sarcocarpi because of the 
fleshy and fully 2-celled pods. His emphas's of the 2-celled feature 
prevented him from seeing that this group is manifestly close to the 
Argophylli which he puts last in his series and some of whose species 
he put in Phaca (A. inflexus, Purshii and Utahensis). In addition 
this group is not as highly developed as the Didymocarpi and Micranthi 
which he places below it. _ 
His next groun is the Diphysi containing A. lentiginosus which is 
far removed from the rest of the Inflati to which it is related but which 
nevertheless connects the Inflati with the Sarcocarpi. 
His third group is the Chaetodontes containing Spaldingii and 
Lyallii but he seems to have failed to have recognized its close re- 
lationship to the Didymocarpi, Micranthi and Reflexi which are the 
most developed groups in the genus. To this we now add A. 
Brauntoni. 
His fourth section is the Mollissimi which is wholly out of place, 
being next to the Argophylli. 
- His fifth section is the Uliginosi, the. Ciceroidei of DeCandolle. 
a well defined group BEER A. Canadensis: and Martoni and should 
