170° 
Lima and Deer Lodge valley Montana, and Silver and Medical lakes 
Washington, and to the main range in Colorado, but not in the Great 
Basin. Open prairies and mea ows, in gravelly and well drained soil. 
Middle Temperate life zone. 
This belongs to the same class as A. Onobrychis, leontinus, and 
microphyllus of Europe, as well as adscendens (to which this species 
is generally referred). . " 
Astragalus nitidus var. robustior (Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 1.149 1834 
as adsurgens var.) This is A. striatus Nutt., sulphu.escens Rydberg, 
Chandonetii Lunel. Flowers white, in short heads, on elongated pe- 
duncles. Calyx teeth long. Hardly a good variety. Same range. 
Astragalus adsurgens Pallas, to which this.species is referred, and 
which botanists assume is A. Laxmanni DC. does not have the con- 
spicuously connate stipules, while Japanese plants (so named but evi- 
a distinct species) have the connate stipules, but oval leaflets, divari- _ 
cate leaves and peduncles which latter are shorter than the leaves. 
This species has many of the characteristics of several groups. It 
at once suggests relationship to the Uliginosi by the pubescence and 
general habit. It appears related to the calycosus and the Spalding: 
groups but it is manifestly closest to A. agrestis, and this is nearesi to 
the Chaetodontes which, in turn, are related to the Didymocarpi, and 
more remotely to the Micranthi.. 
127 Astragalus agrestis Douglas in Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 1 148 
(1834), A.goniatus Nutt., A. Carletonis Rydberg. Pods chartaceous, 
with ventral suture raised and thick and sharp-edged and usually tri- 
angularly and laterally flattened, but in old pods the cross-secton is 
often reniform, pods ovate to oblong-oval, broad, very blunt at both 
ends, obcompressed, scarcely longer than calyx, usually white-shaggy, 
and always white-villous at tip, oblong, 7-10 mm. long, splitting the 
calyx, in dense heads, with wide dorsal groove and deeply sulcate dor- 
sally, often almost to the ventral suture and with narrow septum. Flow- 
ers few to many, purple, with white wings or rarely all white, erect. 
12-20 mm. long, in dense heads which are oblong to short-cylindric 
and about 2.5 cm. long. Banner elongated, with obovate blade, about 
12 mm. long, slightly ascending, a little hooded at tip, abruptly arched 
at calyx tips to 15-45 degrees. about 4 mm. longer than wings, with 
sides reflexed a very little; white spot obovate-cuneate,often subulate- 
tipped, purple-striate and. comes within 4 mm. of tip; groove V-shaped 
and vanishing above. Wings linear-oblong, oblique, rounded, about 
4 mm. longer than keel, straight or ascending parallel with the banner, 
about i mm. wide, veined (as are all the petals), with light-purple base 
and white above. Keelabout three times as long as wide, with the 
triangular tip barely acute and mostly erect, being rounded in a gentle 
curve to the tip, purple, 4-5 mm. longer than calyx, straight. Calyx 
cylindric to campanulate-cylindric, 4-7 mm. long, straight, not oblique, 
narrowed below, with straight and linear-subulate teeth ‘which are 
green and shaggy with variously mixed black and white hairs, and 
teeth a half to two thirdsas long as tube. Pedicels stout and very 
short. Bracts oblong to ovate or linear, green, very conspicuous, the 
lower ones obtuse, the rest acute, often with hyaline margins, about 
. equaling the calyx tube, the lower ones often as large as the leaflets. 
Peduncles 5-12 cm. long, deeply sulcate, longer than the leaves, erect. 
Leaves narrow, delicate, 4-10 cm. long, all petioled. Leaflets narrow- 
ly elliptical to oblong or rarely linear, sometimes a trifle narrowed 
above, truncate to notched, 6-10 pairs, 1-2 cm. long, mostly smooth, 
often puberulent, flat and thin. Upper stipules the largest, conspicu- 
ously sheathing, blunt (rarely acute), often 1.5 cm. long, leaflike. The 
stems weak and almost filiform, rarely afoot long, leafy but with 
«slender internodes, with bases interlaced and with filiform under- 
- ground stems and running rootstocks, erect only in dense meadows 
_ where supported by grass. Pubescence rather loose, appressed, short, 
never dense except on the calyx, with hairs fixed by the base. Com- 
