215. 
St. George Utah. Lower Temperate life zone and going a little inte 
he Tropical, growing on gravelly soil on mesas in open places. The 
whole plant is hoary with closely appressed pubescence and the stems 
are about prostrate. 
In the same region where the two species overlap in Nevada this 
hybridizes with A. Layneae, A. amphioxys X Layneae, with the pods 
of amphioxys and the flowers and somewhat woolly fine pubescence 
of Layneae, peduncles 1.5-2 dm. long and with rachis often 1 dm. long. 
Calyx nigrescent and 5 mm. long, 3 mm. high, short-cylindric, cleft 
deeper above and with unequal teeth, horizontal. Pods rather shortly 
acute at both ends, about 3 cm.long,about the same as the variety 
vespertinus, dorsal suture not intruded. Chimihuevis Mts. Arizona 
(south of Franconia) and my No. 5010 from the copper mine west of 
St. George Utah, April 4 1894. Some of the plants are elearly 3 years 
old. The flowers are rather short and stubby, about 2 cm long, the 
banner not much longer than the wing, the keel broad. 
Astragalus amphioxys var. vespertinus (Sheldon Minn. Bot. Stud. , 
9 150 1894 as species). This is a form hardly deserving varietal rank, 
with pods about 3 cm. long, narrow!y oblong and mostly straight, 
with the coatings inclined to separate along the ventral suture as in A 
cymboides and with the dry cross-section inclined to be quadrangular, 
the pods with triangular-acute tip and a little narrowed but not acumi- 
nate at base. Leaflets not many and fewer pairs, obovate and obtuse. 
Peduncles. normally longer than theleaves. Calyx teeth often 2 
mm.long. Conspicuous as are the extremes among the forms of this 
species there is every gradation in all the characters in the same soil 
and locality. This variety is the common form on the clay slopes and 
mesas of the Navajo Basin. Coville's plant from the Panamint Mts. 
is probably something else. 
Astragalus amphioxys var. cymbellus N. Var. Low and nearly 
acaulescent winter annuals. Leaflets from elliptical and acute to 
broadly obovate and strongly apiculate, 3-6 pairs. Flowers large, white. 
or pink-purple, about 2 cm. long, narrow, with calyx teeth about one 
fourth aslong as the tube. Pedicels short and stout. Bracts lanceo- 
late, hyaline. 4-6 mm. long. Banner oval. Wings linear and purple- 
tipped. Pods oblong to narrowly so, shortly acuminate, narrowed and 
rounded below, about 2 cm long, and 8-I5 mm. wide, nearly round 
when fresh or a little oblate, with a very fizm and woody inner wall 
and a very soft outer pulp which is transparent and nearly 2 mm. wide, 
and with the outer skin very thin. The ventral suture extends through 
the pulp as a thin ridge, the dorsal suture also but very narrow. The 
seeds are horizontal and the cavity smooth within. When dry the pod 
is deltoid to diamond-shaped in cross-section, with both sutures very 
much raised and thickened especially the ventral, the sides being very 
convex along the middle. At maturity and when very dry the outer 
skin splits away from the inner along the ventral suture throughout 
and becomes explanate giving the pod an oval appearance. The pulp 
when dry is often represented by a cellular paper like that of a hor- 
net’s nest which fluffs up along the border and inside of the very thick 
sutural rims. The seed pedicels run through to the outer skin and ap- 
pear as teeth on the rim. Sutures not intruded. Common in the San 
Rafael Swell and the western side of the Navajo Basin. generally on 
clay slopes and benches. It connects with the species by all sorts of 
intergrades. The ventral suture varies from much more to much less 
convex than the dorsal. Lr 
175 As'ragalus Newberryi Gray Proc. Am. Acad. 12 55 (1876). 
The type of the species is the most congested and starved form, and 
is not at all representative of its normal form though very variable. —— 
Pods nearly 2 cm. long and 1.5 cm. wide, ovate to nearly globose, con- 
spicuously inflated, quite oblique. often a little sulcate at base at both 
sutures and somewhat obcompressed, but laterally if at ali flattened — 
