TO €G5rrKTBtJirrc^s' to western 



ign'ftxuft k A. aridus, and is out of place. 



Astragalus. Macbride Cont. Gray Herb; 65 pp. 28-29 (1922) tries 

 !o make a few new combinations in this gaius. This was before the 

 apipearance of my monograph. A. lanceanus Gray I at first confused 

 with A. episcopus. Some years later I was fortunate enough to find it 

 growing abundantly on the San Rafeal Swrfl, Utah, and was enabled to 

 give a complete descripticm of it for the first time. Macbride's treatment 

 of A^ tenellus is fair. In A. campestris he makes a blunder in putting 

 A, diversifolius as a variety of it while it is surely a form of A. junceus. 

 He fafls utterly to see the cosmopolitan character of A. campestris Mac- 

 bride 27 and for this reason keeps up a number of form species, Gar- 

 rcttj., Carletonii, hylophilus, Rydbergii. He calls attention to Rydberg's 

 ludicrous reduction , of A. Coltoni Jones to A. episcoups. He attempts to 

 keep up Gray's A. Gibbsii var, falciformis under Sheldon's substitute 

 cun-icarpus. But anyone familiar with the flora of western Nevada 



blunder. A. Gibbsii occurs 



Coiu 



and eastward 



IS endent. Macbnde shows his ignorance by saying that A. Gibbsii 

 gr.m^s only near the type locality. It is the opinion of the writer that 



Wachnde is too wont to jump in where his information is not enough to 

 float htm. ° 



.Astagalus^ bicristatus. It never was my good fortune to study criti- 



ipecics 



That the plant belongs 



in 



fr 



Tjs group is evident, but it simulates A. Casei ver 

 The cross-section is the same, an oblate-oval, an. 

 ' be mistaken for that species, as there is no sign 



but on drying the woody 



and acuminate beaks and stipe 

 1 often tinged with purple, w! 



pulp dries. The pods tape 



flowers 



hile the flowers of 



li/ne'fo;;.tr'rn^"^./"'^'^'.t,'rii'-^'*^* '^ ^^ ^^^™«' g^^^elly slopes in 

 TJ^ .eS ^^.L-^'Z""''^ ^ pouglasii, Lower Temperate life zone, 

 in tu fu '' ' ''^'' ^""^^ ^^^"^ t^« samefplants growing 



getl,er'^''much fl''''^'^' ^^ Hagiobothrys Jonesii Gray makes alto- 

 An^^nckh rS hn T- \'''"'^ ^""^'^ «f "^^"^ ^b«>"t its being an 

 fen: k ak^n riS 1 T characters. I had no intention of having my 

 rema k tak.n cnticallv. ,f «,,c .^.tended simply to indicate superficial 



h faith we are to place in the generic 

 am not discussing, but I tliink too much is made 



Just 



ogy m systematic bontany, and 



ihism ] 

 stamen 



forms seems ridiculous. No one 



can actually say whetl^er it is wronTor right dZhe^^^^^^^^ ""Z 



from seeds and the dimoiphism actuf 11^ n^vil V^t .f^^, ^'^ ?T 

 nosition of thA o^-.on„^ *...•- ^'^^^'^^"Y proved. But the ecological dis- 



position of the so-called species 



