PLANTS FROM SOUTHEASTERN UTAH. 287 



covered with yellow glands, which are variable in size; 

 leaves subulate, 3-4 mm. long, ciliate and with numerous 

 glands ; leafless stems terminated by slender interrupted 

 racemes of small flowers, solitary or in pairs; bracts minute, 

 ovate -acuminate, deciduous; calyx canescent with silky 

 hairs, attenuate to a short, densely hairy pedicel; upper lip 

 obcordate, lower, cleft into three blunt teeth, hairy within; 

 corolla dark blue, with broad banner emarginate and rev- 

 olute; wings narrow, barely surpassing the banner, keel 

 short and obtuse; pod 4 mm. in diameter, chartaceous, 

 canescent with silky hairs which almost conceal the mi- 

 nute glands; seed loosely covered, 4 mm. long, light 

 brown, flattened. 



This singular and interesting Psoralea was found in 

 one of the broad sandy washes of Epsom Creek. The 

 sand formed knolls around the clumps which were scat- 

 tered here and there over the desert waste. ( Poliomin- 

 tha incana and Ephedra Torreyana grew in the same lo- 

 cality and formed similar clumps.) With its numerous 

 leafless virgate stems it suggested an Ephedra or a Jun- 

 cus. It is related most nearly to P. PurshuVaM, from the 

 character of the fruit and has undoubtedly degenerated 

 from some leafy species because of its desert environ- 

 ment. It evidently secures a store of water in the sand 

 by forming knolls and probably has a large root. (This 

 was impossible to determine because of the loss of my 

 pick.) There is an African species, a shrub, which 

 has the lower leaves pinnate, but the upper reduced to 

 scales. 



I planted a seed which germinated but died when two 

 pairs of leaves had formed. This seedling is shown nat- 

 ural size in the figure where the plant is delineated. 



Type in the Herbarium of the California Academy of 

 Sciences. 



