VOL. 5] Contributeons to Western Botany, No. IX. 47 
season fails to show any intergrades. The pods are more mot- 
tled, much more rigid, the whole plant less leafy, leaflets smaller, 
and the whole inclined to be glaucous. 
ASTRAGALUS BECKWITHII Torr. Watson, in his revision in 
King’s Report, never seems to have suspected the genetic relation- 
ship ofthis plant, as he placed it with the ‘‘Argophylli,’’ with 
whose species it has not the slightest relationship. Its true place 
is with the ‘‘Inflati’’ and it is a very close congener to A. 
oophorus. 
ASTRAGALUS BECKWITHII Torr. var. Weiserensis, Leaflets 
about an inch long, ovate to oval-ovate, contiguous, glaucous, 
very obtuse, 4 to 5 pairs, thick; stems, peduncles and petioles 
very sulcate and stout; pods little mottled, coriaceous, slightly 
corrugated, distinctly transversely veined below, much obcom- 
pressed, about 2 lines high, 4 lines wide and an inch long, arcuate 
to % circle, pungently acute, oblong-elliptical in outline, ventral 
suture raised % a line high as a thin and papery keel; flowers 
few, shortly racemose or almost capitate, about an inch long, 
nearly white; banner abruptly bent to 80° at a point a line beyond 
the calyx tips, cream-colored, broadly oblong, somewhat fiddle- 
shaped, being contracted 4 the distance above the base, sides 
reflexed only near the middle, water-lined, with no white spot, 
the base of the blade sticks down like ears on each side below the 
keel-tip, base very thick and rigid and fleshy, swelled and larger 
at keel-tip and tapering from there to the end of the claw; sulcus 
conical and much constricted below, disappears at tip of banner 
in a groove; wings broadly linear or elliptical-oblanceolate, over 
a line wide, deeper cream-colored and water-lined throughout, tip 
rounded but almost acute, entire, arched a little, flat to keel and 
flaring a little at tip, not as wide as, but two lines longer than the 
keel; keel straight, tip straight, erect, blunt, yellow, the blade 
3 lines long; calyx decidedly compressed, oblique, hyaline, trun- 
cate at base and oblique there, lower side straight, upper side 
arched, smooth, teeth subulate, 2 to 2% lines long, tube as long; 
bracts subulate-lanceolate, 6 lines long, green; pedicels % to a 
line long, stout; flowers horizontal; stems rather short, rarely 
over 6 to 10 inches long and decumbent. Taken asa whole this 
