Contributions to Western Botany. 69 
A. sericoleucus var. tridactylicus (Gray). -A. tridactylicus 
Gray Proc. A. A. 6 527. It is evident that this is only a well 
marked variety as there are all sorts of intergrades in peduncles, 
leaves and pods. The var. aretioides is an intermediate form. 
A. scaphoides (Jones Proc. Cal. Acad. 2 5 664). A. arrectus 
var. scaphoides Jones 1. ec. A. scophioides Rydberg Fl. Mont. 
241. The writer never published an A. scophioides. 
Homalobus hylophilus Rydb. Fl. Mont. 247 is the wide- 
leaved form of Astragalus decumbens var. convallarius, growing 
in the shade. 
In Contributions No. 7 p. 633 the writer found it impossible 
to see any reason in the Brittonian method of splitting up 
Astragalus into Phaca, ete., and showed the absurdity of putting 
certain very closely related species into sepa arate genera. Now 
Rydberg in Fl. Mont. p. 242, 243, 245, 246, carries this still 
farther by putting A. elegans, Americanus and aboriginum in 
three genera though they are intimately related species, far more 
closely so than A. aboriginum and A. tenellus which he keeps in 
the same genus. By this method specific and generic characters 
are no longer a question of genetic relationship but rather are 
determined by the personal equation. The.next step will be the 
creation of a botanical Pope, who shall decide whose botanical 
intuitions are true and whose spurious. 
ZOE. Itis a great pleasure to western botanists to see Zoe 
again. It isto be hoped that the Brandegees will find the 
necessary time to continue its publication, though the duties of 
conducting such a journal are arduous. Zoe is the only botan- 
ical journal on the Pacific Coast that has had the courage of its 
convictions and the will to express them. Its immediate prede- 
cessor, now happily defunct, in its later days consisted chiefly of 
a cover and an urgent appeal to subscribers to pay up, which 
was sufficiently indicative of the estimate which the botanical 
public had for a journal that never had an opinion on any im- 
portant controversial subject. 
