14 LOTIFLORI. 
Pods either sulcate dorsally or partly 2-celled by the intrusion 
of the dorsal suture, splitting through the ventral suture asin the 
Alpini but not wholly through the dorsal, coriaceous to cartilagi- 
nous when dry, 5-30 mm, long, mostly ascending, somewhat ob- 
iique or a little arcuate, with reniform, triquetrous, or quadran- 
gular cross-section, inflated only in lotiflorus, sessile and rounded 
at base, tip triangular and acute (apiculate in A. circumdatus). 
“lowers 5-8 mm. long, mostly white or light-colored, rather few, 
n heads or very short-spicate, short-clawed, with short petala. 
Calyx campanulate, with tube 2-4 mm long. Bracts mostly short. 
Stipules not connate, subulate to triangular or deltoid. Slender 
.caulescent perennials from rather woody roots, mostly low plants. 
KEY 
A. Pods oval to oblong, little oblique, not inflated, about 1.5 cm. 
long, straight, very fleshy (the pulp 2-3 mm. thick when fresh and the 
cross-section then about round, but inclined te quadrangular when 
dry), apiculate or very short-pointed, splitting the calyx, sessile when 
fresh, about straight, with the ventral suture raised and thick. Calyx 
teeth triangular, tube 2-3 mm. long. Pubescence very short and close- 
ly appressed, white, composed of fine hairs. Bracts very small, del- 
toid to trianguler, rather thick and hairy. The stems are somewhat 
intricately brancued and depressed. 
AB. Pubescence attached by the base. Fruit on rather slender ped- 
icels which are at least as long as the deltoid bracts. Calyx teeth tri- 
angular and about as long as tube. Tropical. Circumdati. 
Pods nearly smooth. Flowers nearly white. ‘ 
Whole plant almost smooth. 132 circumdatus. 
Pods ashy. Flowers deep-purple-tipped. s 
Whole plant silvery-pubescent. 133 Mohavensis. 
A2B. Hairs attached near the middle. Pods nearly sessile. Ca- 
ly teeth much shorter than the tube. Ventral suture of pods the 
more convex. Not Tropical. Accumbentes 134 accumbens. 
2A. Pods oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, inflated, 1-clled. but dorsal 
suture sometimes a little thickened within, 2-3 cm. long, nearly 1 cm. 
aigh and wide, coriaceous, only a little fleshy when green. Leaflets 
narrow. Flowers capitate, white or nearly so. Calyx lobes arched 
and as long as the tube. Pubescence of hairs attached near the mid- 
dle. Not Tropical. Lotiflori. 135 lotiflorus 
132. Astragalus circumdatus Greene Pitt. 1, 173 (1888). Pods oval- 
oblong, few, about round in cross section when fresh, deeidediy fleshy 
and pulpy, faintly corrugated when. dry, nearly acute at base, 1.2-1.8 
-m, long, about 7 mm. high, 5 mm wide, straight, a little narrowed be- 
low, erect or spreading, green and barely pubescent when ripe, houry 
when you ig with very short and appressed hairs, dorsal suture neither 
raised nor thick but a little convex; tip triangular and placed in the 
middle of the end. Flowers 5-12 indifferently spreading, white, 7 muu. 
long, short and stubby. Banner oval, white, very wide below, abruptly 
