61 



ARTIFICIAL KEY TO ASTRAGALUS GROUPS. 



A. Pods wholly 1-celled and without any intrusion within the 

 cell of either suture, but pods may be grooved at either 

 suture. 

 AB. Pods narrow or small, the cross section not over 4 mm. 

 long-, neither inflated nor fleshy. 

 ABC. Pods narrow, mostly laterally flattened. 



1. Homalobi. 

 AB2C. Pods oblong- to oval, obcompressed and bisulcate 

 ventrally. 

 Pods erect and sessile 23. Ocreati 



Pods pendent and stipitate 24. Bisulcati. 



AB3C. Pods short and broad, inclined to be obliquely 

 ovate, seldom longer than calyx, mostly rigid. 

 Walls rigid, Plants mostly caespitose or acaules- 

 cent and densely tufted. 

 Flowers not large. 1. Homalobi. 



Flowers large and white. Pods shorter 



than calyx 2. Triphylli. 



Walls not rigid (except in leptaleus). Stems slender 



and weak. 



Annuals A. quinqueflorus. 



Perennials growing in damp meadows. 3. Debiles. 



A2B. Pods narrow and large, stipitate, mostly curved, not 



inflated, fleshv or with rigid walls, with cross section 



over 4 mm. long. Some forms of A. humistratus might 



come here. 



Flowers ochroleucous with woolly calyx, stubby, many. 



7. Collini. 



Flowers mostly purple, more scattered, without woolly 



calyx. 10. Reventi-Arrecti. 



A3B. Pods broad narrow in flexuosus, etc., inclined to be 



inflated and mottled and with short and spreading 



pubescence at least on the leaves, firm but not fleshy, 



Flowers purple and mostly small. Stems slender and 



tufted. 17. Flexuosi. 



A4B. Pods broad and very fleshy, or narrowed at tips and 



winged or angled. 8. Podo-sclerocarpi. 



2A. Pods incompletely 2-celled by one or both sutures being 



reised as a ridge or partial partition within. 



