LEGUMINOS^. 7 



oue or both sutures. Seeds few or many, small for the size of the pod, com- 

 monly reniform, on slender funiculi. — A polymorphous genus, embracing 

 some hundi-eds of species, most of them inhabiting northern Asia and 

 North America. Most of ours have, when fresh, a heavy somewhat nause- 

 ating odor. Several are thought to be poisonous to cattle and horses. 



* A nil Hah. 



1. A. didymocarims, H. & A. Bot. Beech. 334. t. 81. (1840). Slender, 

 pubescent, 1 ft. high : leaflets 9 — 15, cuneate-ablong to linear, emarginate, 

 3-5 lines long : spikes long-peduncled, dense, ovate or oblong : fl. small, 

 dull purplish : pods erect, 2 lines long and about as broad, scarcely exserted 

 from the calyx, strongly wrinkled, 2-celled, 2-seeded. — Abundant along the 

 eastern base of Mt. Diablo Range and far southward ; apparently not in 

 the Bay region, or near the coast, where it is replaced by the next. 



2. A. iiigTesceiis, Nutt. PI. Gamb. 152 (1848). Smaller than the last, 

 more slender, less pubescent, the less dense spikes cylindrical : pods 

 deflexed, well exserted from the calyx, slightly wrinkled, strongly obcom- 

 pressed. — Common on sterile gravelly hill-sides of the Bay region ; the 

 flowers commonly minute and dull, but on the flanks of Mt. Tamalpais 

 and northward larger and violet. An exceedingly well marked species 

 which eastern l)otanists had confused with the jjreceding. 



3. A. teller, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 206 (1864); A. hypogloitis, 

 var. singosus, Kell. Proc. Calif. Acad. ii. 115 (1863). Fhaca asiragalina, 

 H. & A. Bot. Beech. 334 ( 1840). Slender, sparsely pubescent, 6—10 in. 

 high : leaflets 9 — 15, linear or cuneate, acute or retuse : fl. many, capitate 

 on a slender peduncle, purple : pod % in. long, slender, incurved, 2-celled, 

 5 -10-seeded. — In moist lands, either sandy or alluvial. A handsome 

 species ; the heads of purple and white recalling those of some kinds of 

 clover. Apr. May. 



4. A. Breweri, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 207 (1864). Smaller than 

 the last, relatively stouter, leaflets broader, heads few-flowered : pods 

 with a short body and a very long incurved beak. — Common in fields of 

 the Sonoma valley, Brewer, and in Lake Co., Mrs. Curran. Rarely 

 collected and perhaps somewhat local. 



5. A. Battaiii, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 75 (1883). Strigose puberu- 

 lent, 1 ft. high : leaflets 11 —17, obovate-oblong, emarginate : fl. few, 

 capitate, the peduncles exceeding the leaves : teeth of calyx shorter than 

 the campanulate tube : corolla 5 lines long, violet : pods spreading, 

 very slender, subulate-beaked, 2 in. long, partly 2-celled, many-seeded. — 

 Prairies of Mendocino Co., Ratlan, and of Humboldt, Chesrnit tt Drew. 

 Species wearing much of the aspect of a Loins. June. 



* * Perenniah. 

 ■i—PofIs bladde ry-injialed , mure or less perfectly .^-celled. 



