Contributions to Western Botany. 17 



and appressed; pods round to oblong; stems x to 2 feet high; 

 plants leafy with slender and graceful leaves. No. 399 Wislize- 

 nus May 27th, 1846 7 on Prairies from "Independence westward, 

 common;" April. 1849, Brazos Texas, Lindheimer; No. 230 

 Lindheimer; April, 1844, Prairies of the San Felipe, Tex.; No. 

 339a Victoria Tex. Feb, 1845, Lindheimer; No. 596 Lindheimer, 

 clayey soil near Victoria Tex. 1845; No. 412 Lindheimer, New 

 Braunfels, Tex. April, 1844; No. 598 Lindheimer May, 1844; 

 No. 17158 Missouri Bot. Garden, Tex.? Probably belongs here 

 also Engelmann's specimen from Missouri 1835. Gattinger also 

 has a specimen labeled "Lavergne May 13th, 1881." This 

 variety approaches A. Mexicanus and A. Plattensis in its 

 leaves. 



Astragalus agrestis Dougl. Don. Mill 2 257, This can easily 

 be distinguished from the allied European hypoglottis L. by the 

 shaggy calyx fnot simply nigrescent), long calyx teeth, and long 

 bracts. Ours is also (if at all pubescent) rough or puberulent, 

 while tiie the other is softly pubescent on the leaves. 



Astragalus occidentals (Wat.) (A. Robbinsii var. occi- 

 dentalis Watson Bot. King. v. 70). This differs from A. elegans 

 Hooker in the upper leaves being never sessile nor condensed, 

 width of leaflets fully }i their length (6 lines long), stems weak 

 and decumbent, plants nearly glabrous, pods only nigrescent and 

 with short stipe nearly as long as calyx. It differs from A. 

 Robbinsii Oakes in the short stipe; strictly lunate not flat pods, 

 acute at both ends, nearly as wide as high; and 6 to 7 (not 3 to 6) 

 pairs of leaflets. Having collected this during the present year 

 in W^atson's type locality and studied it carefully in the field in 

 every stage of growth there is no hesitation in raising it to 

 specific rank. Watson in his description sees no evidence of a 

 dorsal intrusion of suture but it is very evident. 



The three species A. elegans, occidentalis, and Robbinsii 

 have the following characters in common: stipules large, but 

 connate only below; leaflets green, often paler below, 5 to 7 pairs, 

 thin, oblong, obtuse to retuse; flowers in heads or short spikes, 

 pods in long racemes; calyx teeth less than half the tube; pedi- 

 cels slender, in fruit nearly 2 lines long, equaling the subulate 



