60 LEGUMINOSJE. (PULSE FAMILY.") 



13. ASTRAGALUS, Touru. Rattle-weed. 



Corolla and its slender-clawed petals usually narrow. — Herbs, or a few 

 woody at base : with rather small flowers, chiefly in simple axillary spikes or 

 racemes : the peduucle commonly elongated. — Gray, Proc. xVra. Acad. vi. 188. 

 Watson, Bot. King's Exp. 435. 



Series I. Pod completely or imperfecthj 2-celJed bij the intrusion of the dorsal 

 suture, the ventral suture being not at all or less deeply injlexed. — Astra- 

 galus, L. 



Artificial Key. 



fod suco.ulent, becoming thick and fleshy, sessile Nos. 1, 2, 3 



Pod not 2-celled, inflated, not mottled, sessile ; plant hirsute-canescent ... 27 



I'od completely 2-cellef], bladdery-inflated, often mottled, sessile ; plant nearly glabrous 4 

 Pod coriaceous, cartilaginous, or chartaceous, not bladdery-inflated, 



1. Conspicuously stipitate, the stipe about equalling or surpassing the calyx, 



Notsulcate 20,21 



Deeply sulcate. 



Pod glabrous, pendent .... 14, 15, 16 



Pod black-hairy 24 = 



2. Short-stipitate, 



Notsulcate . 22 



Sulcate, 



Incurved, mottled 25 



Straight, 



Completely 2-celled 11, 13 



Incompletely 2-ceUed 23, 26 



3. Sessile. 



Completely 2-celled, 



Ghibrous • . . 5, 7 



Pubescent or hoary 8, 9, 10, 12 



Villous or woolly 6 



Incompletely 2-celled. 



Stems a span or more high . . 18, 19 



Stems not rising so high, or none at all 



Pod straight or nearly so .... 17, 28 



Pod cur\'ed . . . . . . . . • . 29, 30, 31, 32 



Systematic Synopsis. 



§ 1. Pod plum-shaped, succulent, becoming thick and fleshy, indehiscent, not stip- 

 itate, completely 2-celled. — Perennials, with low leafy stems : stipules distinct, 

 nearly free : racemes short, spike-liJce. 



* Ovary and pod glabrous. 



1. A. earyocarpus, Ker. Grayish with an oppressed pubescence: flowers 

 violet: pod globose or ovate, usually pointed. — Plains from the Saskatchewan 

 to Texas. 



2. A. Mexicanus, A.DC. Taller, greener, less pubescent: flowers lighter- 

 colored or ichite: calyx softly ichite-villons or tomentose : pod ovate-globose, 

 scarcely pointed. — From Colorado to Missouri and S. Texas. 



* * Ovary hoary-hirsute : pod sometimes becoming glabrate. 



3. A. Plattensis, Nutt. Loosely villous : flowers ochroleucous or pur- 

 plish above: pod ovate, acuminate, or oblong and somewhat curved. — From 

 Colorado to Nebraska and Illinois, and southward to Texas and N. Alabama. 



