Inflati 121 



into a stipe which is jointed and then produced as a stipe which is 

 about as long as calyx, the whole stipe as long as or twice as long 

 as calyx tube. Flowers in the type cream-colored almost exactly as 

 as in A. Beckwithii, shortly racemose, about 10, ascending, about 1.5 

 cm. long, rather wide. Banner oval to broadly oblong, arched abrupt- 

 ly to 45 to 90 degrees, remote from calyx tips, nearly 1 cm. long, with 

 sides reflexed in the middle and so appearing fiddle-shaped, the erect 

 part a little humped near the middle by the half-conical sulcus. Wings 

 2-3 mm. shorter than banner and nearly as much longer than keel, 

 about 2 mm. wide and linear. Keel with exserted claw, about 3 mm. 

 long and high, very obtuse and arched to a half circle, barely darker 

 tipped. Calyx tube campanulate, about 4 mm. long and high, nearly 

 equally inserted at the rounded and slightly oblique and fleshy base, 

 cleft a little deeper above with a broad sinus but hardly oblique, 

 all the sinuses rounded, and teeth filiform and as long as tube. 

 Pedicels 3-4 mm. long, nearly as long as the lanceolate and hyaline 

 bracts. Leaves about 1 dm. long, narrow and rather rigid, with pet- 

 iole decidedly shorter than the rachis. Leaflets 4-12 pairs, from round 

 to oblong-elliptical, always with cuneate base, 1-2 cm. long, smooth 

 and leathery, glaucous. Stipules triangular-falcate, rathfM- rigid and 

 spreading, not over 5 mm. long. Stems slender, in tufts, rarely a 

 foot long, flexuous, with congested lower nodes, leafy, the upper in- 

 lernodes rarely 3 cm. long, ascending or the central ones erect, from 

 an erect, slender, fleshy root. Common on gravelly sloi)es in desert 

 regions from Gunnison Colorado to the Sierras, northward through 

 LTtah Valley Utah and the Reese river Nevada, southward to the 

 Mogollon plateau Arizona and the Charleston Mts. and Death Valley. 

 Lower Tenii)erate life zone. This and A. Beckwithii inhabit the same 

 regions but do not grow together nor seem to hybridize. The south- 

 ern forms are mostly the var. artipes. Bailey's specimen mentioned 

 in Coville's Death Valley Rep. is A. megacarpus. 



Astragalus oophorus var. caulescens (Jones Cont. 7 643 (1895) 

 (1878) as species). This has purple banner and keel and white wings, 

 calyx teeth triangul-^r and about half as long as tube, tube often 

 7 mm. long and 4 mm. high, pods inclined to be acuminate into the 

 stipe, papery and much mottled. This is the common form of the 

 ■southern range. 



Astragalus oophorus var. caulescens (Jnes Cont. 7 643 (1895) as 

 metacarpus var.) This is a form with nearly coriaceous pods acu- 

 minate at both ends, barely mottled, and calyx teeth as long as tube, 

 and which begins to approach A. Beckwithii, Webe rQuarry, Loa, Loa 

 Pass Utah. Glenwood Springs, Colorado. 



77. Astragalus Beckwithii T. & G. Pac. R. R. Rep. 2 pt 2 120 t. 

 3 (1855). Pods oblong and obliquely acuminate, 2.5-4 cm. long, 7-10 

 mm. wide, cross section Y-shaped by being bisulcate ventrally and the 

 suture raised as a sharp and strong rib, concavely triquetrous mostly, 

 rather reniform in the var. Weiserensis, a little fleshy when fresh, 

 transversely rugulose or smoothish, dorsal side a little convex or flat 

 or a trifle sulcate, in the type not puliiy within when fresh, often 

 minutely and sparsely black-hairy, with stipe about as long as calyx 

 and then jointed to the tapering and stipe-like base of pod. Flowers 

 crowded in short racemes, cream-colored in the type, about 1.5-2 cm. 

 long, 6-10. Banner abruptly arched about 4 mm. beyond calyx tips 

 and opposite the end of keel to erect, oblong, deeply notched, with 

 sides reflexed only in the middle, and fiddle-shaped, waterlined: groove 

 broadly V-shai)ed above, a half circle below and making the lower 

 part of banner very convex externally and club-shaped above the 

 JTincture with the fleshy claw, the blade about 12 mm. loni^'and i mm. 

 wide. Wings obliquely oblanceolate, narrowed and nearly acute at 

 tip, 3-4 mm. wide, about 7 mm. longer than keel. Keel faintly purple- 



