Reventi-Arrectl. 168 



life zone. This is the extreme variation of the species caused by aridity 

 and hot climate. But all these forms intergrade from one to the other 

 as you go south. 



Astragalus arrectus var. scaphoides Jones Cont. 7 664 (1895). A. 

 scn:)iioides Jones A. scophioides Rydberg. This is a form with the coria- 

 ceous pods truncate below, oblong, about 2 cm. long and 1 cm. wide and 

 3 mm. high, much obcompressed and rather sulcate at both sutures, 

 the dorsal suture intruded nearly to the ventral as a thick partition, 

 stipe stout and about half as long as pod. Calyx tube short-cylindrical, 

 about 4 mm. long and the teeth a fourth as long. Peduncles about a 

 foot long and racemosely flowered. Leaves about 1.5 dm. long. Leaf- 

 lets about 10 pairs, elliptical, smooth above. Stems very coarse 

 and stiff, about 2 ft. high. Clark's Canon, Beaver Head Co. Montana. 

 Middle Temperate life zone. This is known only from one specimen 

 and may be only a robust form of the var. Kelseyi. Forms from 

 Weiser Idaho connect this with the type. 



118. Astragalus Cimae N. Sp. Low and rather coarse. The proper 

 stems rarely 1 dm. long, with short internodes, large and hyaline sti- 

 pules and long lanceolate bracts and few flowers in a head and short- 

 ly racemose pods in fruit and on peduncles shorter than the leaves. 

 Tufted stems from a woody root and zigzag and decumbent. Leaves 

 almost sessile, about 1 dm. long, of about 10 pairs of oval-obovate and 

 slender-petiolulate leaflets, 1 cm. long which are rounded or refuse, and 

 smooth and flat and leathery. FloM'ers not seen but evidently large 

 and ascending. Pods very fleshy, probably 2 mm. thick when fresh, fine 

 ly cross-veined and wrinkled, much arcuate and with deflexed tip, stout 

 and triangular with ventral suture concave except at the very convex 

 tip, much laterally flattened and broadly sulcate at both sutures and 

 with rounded sides, about 2 cm. long. 1 cm. wide and 5 mm. thick, the 

 body often arched in a half circle and set at right angles to the stout 

 btipe which is 1 cm. long, narrowly oblong to ovate, splitting through 

 the ventral suture to stipe, the dorsal opening at tip and to the middle 

 at least, somewhat inflated but apparently full of pulp. Both sutures 

 intruded and the dorsal nearly to the other in the middle of the pod 

 but not at all at the ends. The ventral suture very thick and somewhat 

 raised when dry, the dorsal thin and raised. Cross section oblong. Col- 

 lected by Mrs. Brandegee at Cima on the edge of Nevada near the 

 Charleston Mts. 1915. This reminds one of a Bolanderi. 



119 Astragalus vallaris Jones Cont. 10 59 1902) Pods with body 

 4-5 cm. long, 1 cm. wide, and 5 mm. high, either abruptly acuminate or 

 truncate at base, finely reticulated and cross-nerved, arched to about a 

 third circle, oblong-ovate, with cartilaginous walls about 2 mm. thick 

 when fresh, with stipe 2 cm. long, the base of pod ending in a very 

 thick obconic beak-like straight stipe taperiug into the calyx which be- 

 ing a little reflexed brings the body of the pod about horizontal and 

 the tip nearljr erect, general outline of pod lanceolate-oblong with tip 

 flattened and 2-3 times as long as wide and only slightly declined. 

 Flowers white, about 2 cm. long. Banner gently arched to 45 degrees 

 2 mm. beyond the calyx tips, lanceolate, with sides reflexed 1 mm. wide 

 above the middle and making the blade seem very narrow above. The 

 wings are linear, 2 mm. wide, fully 2 mm. longer than keel, narrowed 

 at tip, a little ascending. Keel gently rounded from the base to the 

 erect tip which is blunt, 7 mm. long, pirple, about as in A. amphioxys. 

 Calyx about 5 mm. long, obliquely inserted, with subulate teeth about 

 as long as tube. Fruiting pedicels very stout, about 3 mm. long, as- 

 cending. Peduncles in the lower axils only, as in .A., crassicarpus. slen- 

 der, hardly 1 dm. long, with the few pods short-spicate on a rachis 

 hardly half the peduncle. Bracts and stipules small and acuminate. 

 Leaflets with a shortly-cuneate base, contiguous, at least a third as 

 wide as long, with the proper petiole hardly half as long as the adjoin- 

 ing leaflet, and the leaf rachis tapering, green-striped and widely 



