Contribution* to Western Botany* 15 



Astragalus canonis. n.sp. Big Indian Canyon near Hawthorne, 

 Nev. May 27, 1897, 4700 ft. alt, in alkaline, scoriaceous, porous 

 soil, on south slopes and along the creek. Slender stems, petioles 

 and peduncles round, barely sulcate, tapering upwards. Plants 

 about 2 ft. high, much and widely branched below forming clumps 

 2 to 3 ft. in diameter and outer stems decumbent; root thick, 

 stout, perennial; lower stipules hyaline and very wide, 1 to 2 

 lines high, distinct, upper triangular, stiff, green, reflexed, about 

 a line long, and distinct; nodes 4 inches or less apart; middle 

 leaves the largest, 4 to 5 inches long, with 2 to 3 pairs of leaf- 

 lets, lowest leaves often barely 1 to 2 inches long, of 3 oval leaf- 

 lets, 6 or more lines long, the upper leaves have leaflets which 

 are narrowly-elliptical to linear-lanceolate, but always with more 

 or less of a lanceolate outline, 1 to 2 inches long, 2 to 3 lines 

 wide, leaflets on the uppermost leaves nearly linear, all leaflets 

 have a white mucro, are distant, petiolulate, and jointed to the 

 green rachis; peduncles subterminal, 6 to 12 inches long, flowers 

 fully an inch long; calyx nigrescent with minute hairs; pods 1 

 to 1^ inches long, a little arcuate, when old and dry, 3 lines 

 high and four lines wide, with ascending mucro, 3 lines long from 

 a flat and deltoid base, ventral suture nearly a line wide, a 

 little depressed, dorsal suture narrow and raised externally, 

 pod with close set transverse rings, sometimea with faint 

 lateral lines but forming no distinct meshes, texture wood)', both 

 sutures intruded, the lower one goes y z to f§ across but the 

 sutures do not quite touch, pod i-celled at very apex, only a 

 trifle inflated; cross section oblong-reniform, seed-bearing 

 throughout, opening at the tip. Characters taken trom the 

 fresh plants are as follows: tufted, straggling; leaves silvery be- 

 neath with minute appressed pubescence, green but with closely 

 appressed, stiff, short hairs; flowers racemose; calyx on stout 

 pedicel a line long in flower; triangular bract stout, a line long; 

 calyx tube 3 lines long, 1% lines high, y± line wide, very much 

 compressed, arcuate, equally inserted, but the upper corner cut 

 off and sloping into the pedicel, hyaline, but fleshy at base, cleft 

 deeper above, teeth equal, subulate, i line long; banner oblong- 

 ovate, 7 lines long, gently arched to 80 degrees at calyx tips. 



