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ARTIFICIAL KEY TO ASTRAGALUS GROUPS. 
A. Pods wholly 1-celled and without any intrusion within the 
cell of either suture, but pods may be grooved at either 
suture. 
AB. Pods narrow or small, the cross section not over 4 mm. 
long, neither inflated nor fleshy. 
ABC. Pods narrow, mostly laterally flattened. 
1. Homalobi. 
AB2C. Pods oblong to oval, obcompressed and bisulcate 
ventrally. 
Pods erect and sessile 23. Ocreati 
Pods pendent and stipitate 24. Bisulcati. 
AB3C. Pods short and broad, inclined to be obliquely 
ovate, seldom longer than calyx, mostly rigid. 
Walls rigid, Plants mostly cespitose or acaules- 
cent and densely tufted. 
Flowers not large. 1. Homalobi. 
Flowers large and white. Pods shorter 
than calyx 2. Triphylli. 
Walls not rigid (except in leptaleus). Stems slender 
and weak. 
Annuals A. quinqueflorus. 
Perenníals growing in damp meadows. 3. Debiles. 
A2B. Pods narrow and large, stipitate, mostly curved, not 
inflated, fleshy or with rigid walls, with cross section 
over 4 mm. long. Some forms of A. humistratus might 
come here. 
Flowers ochroleucous with woolly calyx, stubby, many. 
7. Collini. 
Flowers mostly purple, more scattered, without woolly 
calyx. 10. Reventi-Arrecti. 
A3B. Pods broad. narrow in flexuosus. etc.. inclined to be 
inflated and mottled and with short and spreading 
pubescence at least on the leaves, firm but not fleshy, 
Flowers purple and mostly small Stems slender and 
tufted. 17. Flexuosi. 
A4B. Pods broad and very fleshy, or narrowed at tips and 
winged or angled. 8. Podo-sclerocarpi. 
2A. Pods incompletely 2-celled by one or both sutures .. 
reised as a ridge or partial partition within. : 
