76 
liptical-ovate and close-pressed to keel to its tip and eoncave to it, 
then flare a little and with the upper edge involute a little, wider than 
keel, arched to 45 degrees and so concealing the keel, 2 mm. wide in 
the middle, entire, white, rounded. Base of keel falcate upward and 
the tip arched at least 90 degrees to this in a short arc, and the tip 
sharp and produced and about 3 mm. high, dirty-purplish and gray- 
tipped. Calyx short-cylindric, a trifle laterally flattened at base 
and obcompressed at tip, not deeper cleft above. About 1.5 mm. thick, 
scarcely fleshy-thickened at base, about 4-5 mm. long. Teeth very 
short and the sinuses rounded and open. Flowers horizontal, mostly 
soon reflexed on stout pedicels. Frequent from the borders of Texas 
through northern Arizona and western Colorado and Wyoming at 
least to Halleck Nevada and northward to the British line in the up- 
per edge of the pinon and juniper belt and throughout the Middle 
Temperate life zone in dry places, preferably on gravelly mesas and 
gentle slopes, mostly in the sagebrush, not in ‘the Columbia Basin. 
Since this is the common form and the species was described first I 
use this name instead of orthocarpus (diversifolius of Gray) which 
would have to displace the name of Boissier. 
Astragalus junceus var. orthocarpus (Nutt. in T. & G. Fl. 1 351 
(1838) as Homalobus), A. junciformis Nelson. This is a rare form 
with the rachis widened to a phyllodium, and with occasionally linear 
and flat leaflets. Green River Wyoming and vicinity and Helper 
Utah where all sorts of intergrades occur. 
Astragalus junceus var. attenuatus. Stems very slender, Leaflets 
entirely absent or reduced to scales and rachis filiform-attenuate. 
Tods compressed throughout, narrowly linear, slightly falcate upward, 
not wider above, about 5 cm. long and 2 mm. high and 1 mm. thick 
gradually attenuate to a filiform tip. Price Utah on the clay mesas in 
very poor soil, among the junipers. This is one of those very interest- 
Ing variations produced by peculiar alkaline deserts of the Navajo 
Basin, but not growing on alkaline flats, and is doubtless caused not 
by alkali but starvation, though the plant has become perfect!y 
adapted to its environment as it is thrifty and not a sport, nor de- 
pauperate. 
11. Astragalus Episcopus Watson Proc. Am. Acad. 10 346 (1875). 
Homalobus Rydberg. Pods flat even at’ maturity and with cross-section 
linear, pod half-elliptical to oblong, 2-3 em. long, 5-6 mm. high in the 
middle and hardly 1 mm. thick, tip and base shortly and obliquely trian- 
gular, the base sometimes contracted to a thick stipe half as long as 
calyx, not sulcate, soon reflexed, smooth and shining, with central sut- 
ure conspicuously the more arched especially near the base. Seeds 
filling from half to a third of the width of cavity. Calyx campanulate, 
about 3 mm. long, with very short deltoid teeth. Pedicels slender, about 
as long as calyx, rarely twisted even in fruit. Flowers white, tinged 
with purple, above about 8 mm. long, with straight base and tip 
arched to 45 to 90 degrees. Banner broadly ovate, about 1 mm. longer 
than wings, with sides reflexed below the middle to 1 mm. wide. 
Wings oblanceolate, oblique, acutish on the upper corner, about 2 mm, 
wide and 1-3 mm. longer than keel, little flaring. Keel with straight 
base, rather sharply arched at tip to 90 degrees, and erect part 3-4 mm, 
rather narrowly-triangular but not conspicuously sharp as in al- 
lied species. Stems rigid, round, zig-zag, very much branched form- 
ing a mass about as broad as long, the internodes 3-5 em. long, 
stems about 1-2 ft high. Petioles almost as thick as stems and equal- 
ly rigid, tapering but blunt, rarely a trifle widened at tip, 6-8 cm. long, 
curved, with 1-2 pairs of subalternate scattered leaflets, or the upper 
ones without leaflets, leafiets wher short are oblong, when long are 
linear, 3-20 mm. long, thick and rigid, blont. Stipules small hyaline, 
_ Proper peduncles as stout as stems and similar, rarely as long as leaves, 
