PEA FAMILY 377 



lo«. San Luis Obispo, M. M. Miles. Var. dispermus Jepson. A. dispermus Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 

 13:365 (1878), type loc. Wickenburg, Ariz., Palmer; Jepson, Man. 576 (1925). Eesperastrag- 

 alus dispermus Hel. Muhl. 1:137 (1906). Var. obispoensis Jepson. Hesperastragalus obis- 

 poensis Eydb. Bull. Torr. Club 53:167 (1926), type loe. San Luis Obispo, Jones 3229. 



64. A. gambelianus Sheld. Little Bill Loco. Stems slender, many-branclied 

 from base, 3 to 12 inches Iiigh; herbage rather sparsely appressed-pubescent, the 

 calyces and often the stems with black hairs; leaves % to II/4 inches long; leaflets 

 7 or 9 to 13, narrowly cuneate-oblong, emarginate, 2 to 4 lines long; racemes 4 to 8 

 lines long, 2^4 to 3 lines wide, several-flowered, on slender peduncles, exceeding the 

 leaves; flowers soon curving downward; calyx-teeth narrow, about equaling the 

 tube; corolla 1 line long, violet or violet-tipped; pods deflexed, 1^/2 lines long, well 

 exserted from the calyx, hirsute-pubescent, deeply grooved on the back and thus 

 incompletely 2-celled, the lobes strongly obcompressed and with wavy transverse 

 lineations which are more prominent at the margins; seeds 2. 



Open hill slopes and valley flats, 15 to 4000 feet : Coast Ranges from Humboldt 

 Co. to San Luis Obispo Co., frequent; south to the San Bernardino Valley; also in 

 the Great Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills, but rare. Mar.-May. 



Geog. note. — This slender annual. Astragalus gambelianus, a feature of the vernal flora in 

 the foothills, is the most common and widely distributed species of Astragalus in California. 

 Closely related to A. didymocarpus, it extends further northward than that species and further 

 eastward in the Great Valley region, but is absent from the deserts. In the Sierra Nevada foot- 

 hills it appears to be extremely rare and is, indeed, so far as our records go, one of only two 

 Astragali known in the foothill region, at least north of the San Joaquin Kiver. 



Locs. — Coast Ranges: Trinity River Valley near Willow Creek, Humboldt Co., Tracy 5147; 

 Potter Valley, e. Mendocino Co., Purpus 26 ; head of South Mill Creek, Ukiah, Jepson 9254 ; Mt. 

 St. Helena, Greene; Calistoga, e. of, on Pope Valley grade, Jepson 13,753; Conn Valley, Napa 

 Range, Jepson 10,330; Pine Peak, Vaca Mts., Jepson 13,752; Lagunitas, Marin Co., M. L. Hutch- 

 inson; Hunter Pt., San Francisco, Jepson 12,714; Berkeley, Jepson 13,750; Mt. Diablo, Brewer 

 1071; Livermore, Jepson 13,751; Corral Hollow, Jepson 9580; Belmont, San Mateo Co., Davy 

 785 ; Mt. Hamilton, Jepson 4218 ; Fremont Peak, San Benito Co., Elmer 4636 ; betw. Coalinga and 

 Parkfield, Peirson 5640 ; San Luis Obispo, Shimmers 204. Great Valley : Anderson, Shasta Co., 

 Alice King; Red Bluff, BlanTcinship; Crane Creek, w. Tehama Co., Jepson 13,749; College City, 

 Colusa Co., Alice King ; Lathrop, K. Brandegee ; Tulare, Davy. Sierra Nevada foothills: Still- 

 water, Shasta Co., M. S. BaTcer ; Four Corners, M. S. Baker; Sweetwater Creek, Eldorado Co., 

 E. Brandegee; Angels Camp, Calaveras Co., Davy 1483; Gwin Mine, Calaveras Co., Jepson 1792; 

 Columbia, Tuolumne Co., A. L. Grant; Knights Ferry, e. Stanislaus Co., F. W. Bancroft; Friant, 

 Fresno Co. (Muhl. 2:218). Tehachapi Mts.: Eowen, Jepson 6718. S. Cal.: Saugus, Geo. B. 

 Grant 5438; Santa Cruz Isl., T. Brandegee; San Bernardino, Parish 3649. 



Refs. — Astragalus gambelianus Sheld. Minn. Bot. Stud. 1 :21 (1894). A. nigrescens Nutt. 

 Joum. Acad. Phila. ser. 2, 1:153 (1848), type loc. Santa Catalina Isl., Gamhel; Jepson, Fl. W. 

 Mid. Cal. 291 (1901), ed. 2, 235 (1911), Man. 577, fig. 567 (1925) ; not A. nigrescens Pall. (1800). 

 A. elmeri Greene, Erythea 3 :98 (1895), type loc. Ross Valley, Marin Co., Drew. Hesperastragalus 

 nigrescens Hel. ; Jones, Rev. N. Am. Astrag. 284 (1923) . H. gambelianus Hel. Muhl. 2 : 87 (1905) . 



65. A. albens Greene. Lone Loco. Stems many from base, diffuse, 5 to 6 

 inches high; herbage silvery-pubescent; leaves 1 to 2 inches long; leaflets 5 to 11, 

 obovate, obtuse, 21/^ to 4 lines long; racemes loose, few-flowered, the peduncles 

 shorter than the leaves; flowers 3 lines long; calyx-teeth lanceolate-subulate, nearly 

 as long as the turbinate tube; corolla purple, 3 lines long; pods sessile, linear, com- 

 pressed, curved, strongly grooved dorsally, 2-celled, strigulose, 6 lines long. 



Dry flats, 4000 to 5800 feet : desert side of the San Bernardino Mts. May. 



Field note. — A highly localized and rarely collected endemic. Astragalus albens was discov- 

 ered long ago, in 1882, at Cushenbury Springs by the Parish brothers. In recent years it has been 

 found once more in the same region, by Peirson, at Cactus Flat. 



Refs. — Astragalus albens Greene, Bull, Cal. Acad. 1:156 (1885), type loc. Cushenbury 

 Sprs., S. B. 4- W. F. Parish 1274; Jepson, Man. 577 (1925). Homalobus albens Rydb. Bull. Torr. 

 Club 54:22 (1927). 



66. A. breweri Gray. Sonoma Loco. Stems filiform or nearly so, branching, 

 1 to several from base, 3 to 9 (or 12) inches high; herbage sparsely strigulose or 



