213 
long, hairy. Crowns several to many. very compact and short, the 
whole forming à dense mat. Whole plant hoary with very dense and 
closely appressed pubescence of slender, round and finely warty hairs 
attached by the middle. Common on clay mesas and in sandy washes 
from Price to Green River and southward at least to Ferron Utah in 
the Lower Temperate life zone. 
173 Astragalus Missouriensis Nutt. Gen. 2 (1818). Pods about 2 cm. 
long, 7-8 mm. wide and 5 mm. high, abruptly stout-beaked, rounded at 
base, straight, rarely a little arcuate, minutely pubescent, strongly and 
finely cross-wrinkled only, with walls about 1-2 mm. thick when fresh 
and with the inner wall very woody, the outer skin inclined to peel off 
a little along the ventral suture but not thrown back nor wing-like 
when old, pods splitting at both sutures nearly to the middle and the 
whole length along the ventral suture when ripe and open at the end, 
inclined to be 4-sided with both sutures raised as keels, and somewhat 
obcompressed and with rounded edge and rarely sulcate ventrally, 
with beak scarcely at all flattened but subulate, cross-section nearly 
round and cavity alittle inflated. Flowers about 1.5 cm. long, purple, 
9-12. Banner about oval, nearly 1 cm. long, gently arched beyond ca- 
lyx teeth to nearly erect, with sides reflexed about 2mm. wide below 
and having an oblong outline, claw white. Wingsnearly linear, alittle 
arched, about 1 mm. wide, rounded, about 2-3 mm. longer than keel and 
4-5 mm. shorter than banner. Keel the same as in A. cymboides, the 
erect part as long as the base, with nearly straight sides and abruptly 
upturned in the middle, about 4 mm. high and with rounded tip. Ca- 
lyx tube about 7 mm. long, and 3 mm. high, nigrescent, short-cylin- 
dric, and with straight sides, somewhat laterally flattened, nearly trun- 
cate at base and inserted near the lower corner, somewhat oblique at 
tip and cleft alittle deeper above, the: subulate teeth spreading and 
about 2 mm. long. Pedicels short and stout, much shorter than the 
subulate-lanceolate bracts which are hyaline and hairy and about 5 
mm.long. Peduncles stout, mostly erect, about 1 dm. longand longer 
than the leaves. Leaves not 1 dm. long, with petioles about as long as 
the rachis, rarely persisting long on the old stems. Leaflets about 5 
(3-7) pairs, inclined to be acute at both ends and elliptical, 5-10 mm. 
long, somewhat thickened, strongly petiolulate, hoary with very fine 
and appressed soft hairs which are flattened in the middle and very 
warty and often twisted and attached near the middle. -Stems short, 
an inch or so long, slender, with internodes seldom as long as the tri- 
angular and conspicuous but not large stipules, several from a _woody 
root, and habit being more that of A. argophyllus but not hugging the 
ground closely. This species grows from Assiniboia and the Saskat- 
ewan, through the Plains of Montana and Dakotah southward to Kan- 
sas and New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, and westward to Santa 
Fee and the borders of the Ric Grade drainage at Farmington New 
Mexico and thence northwartt in the mountains of Colorado but not 
on the Pacific slope, common on the Laramie plains and northward 
throngh Montana to the foot of the Continental Divide but not appar- - 
ently on the Pacific drainage, upper part of the Lower and lower. part 
of the Middle Temperate life zones, in gravelly and well drained soil. 
In the var. cuspidecarpus (Sheldon) the dorsal suture is some- 
times produced a little and then is A. Shortianus var. minor Gray in 
part. This species is the eastern representative of the beautiful A. 
amphioxys but they never seem to occupy the same region. There. is 
very little to separate this species from A. amphioxys var. vespertinus 
except the finely ribbed and straight and blunt pods, and leaflets in- 
elined to be diamond-shaped, and the smaller flowers. This species ap- 
pears to require the summer showers and cooler air of the Plains and 
blooms in May, while its congener of the Pacific slope blooms from _ 
March to early May and grows in a region with less humidity and few 
|. rains and higher temperature, and varies far more. A.remulcus var. — er 
