209 



and 2 mm. deep, very broad and large, and shallowing toward the tip, 

 white spot M-shaped, large, purple-veined below and stippled above. 

 Wings linear, 2 mm. wide, somewhat ascending, rather obtuse, tips 

 horizontal and connivent, purple throughout, 2 mm. longer than keel, 

 and 2 mm longer than banner. Keel straight, bent sharply to erect at 

 the end, purple, triangular-acute, and 3-mm. high, about 7 mm. long. 

 Calyx obliquely cylindrical, the tube about 7 mm long, a little narrow 

 at tip and base and deeper cleft above, about 3 mm. high, laterally 

 flattened, light-colored or reddish, attached in line with the fleshy base 

 and with the upper side _ arched a little and also with the lower side 

 straight, loosely short-nigrescent with the wavy hairs little spreading, 

 nearly sessile on very stout pedicels. Calyx teeth rather thread-like 

 and about one third as long as the tube. Bracts subulate, with filiform 

 tips, nearly 1 cm. long, green. Leaves, 1-3 dm. long, very narrow, the 

 petiole nearly half the whole, and the rachis conspicuously tapering to 

 a fine point and rigid though slender. Leaflets from ovate and very 

 acute to (liaiiiond-shaped, 5-20 mm. long, distant, about 5-8 pairs, long- 

 petiolulate. ashy with minute and very fine and appressed short hairs. 

 Stipules triangular-subulate, 1-1.5 cm. long, green and reflexed, adnate 

 but not at all connate. Stems hoary, rarely 1 dm. long, with 5-8 inter- 

 nodes, ascending from a woody base, much branched, some of the 

 nodes 2-3 cm. apart. This grows in red sand on gravelly slopes near 

 rocks or hanging in festoons from the rocks along the Virgin river 

 from Eellcview to Little Zion Utah. Lower Temperate life zone. The 

 -•■pecies reminds one of A. Parryi but the pods are those of the amphi- 

 o.^ys group, and the pubescence that of argophyllus though looser 

 and may be an extreme form of it, but the habit is that of sparsiflorus 

 and Parryi. The peculiar fleshiness of the fresh pods does not show 

 iw the dried fruit. 



169 Astragalus reraulcus Jones Cont. 7 658 (1895). A. amphioxys 

 var. brachylobus Gray, not A. brachylobus DC. Pods 2-4 cm. long, 

 7-!U mm. wide or high according to the compression, very thick and 

 cartilaginous when dry, the walls thick and woody, and the fleshy 

 pulp thick when fresh, decidedly oblique but not much arcuate, from 

 obliquely ovate to narrowly oblong and very variable in shape, longi- 

 tudinally vv'rinkled and somewhat corrugated vertically, appearing 

 nearly smooth but minutely \voolly, rounded at base and sessile in the 

 calyx, rather blunt at the oblique tip where the thickened sutures are 

 united into a very thick flat prow much wider than long which is ab- 

 ruptly produced into a nearly round and very stout beak 1-2 mm. long 

 which ends in a filamentary recurved style 5-10 mm. long, slightly in- 

 flated, ascending and rather appressed-spicate, ventral suture very 

 thick (about 1 nun.) and a little raised, dorsal suture somewhat thick- 

 ened and raised but not intruded in the type. Pods normally obcom- 

 pressed a little below the middle, with oval cross-section, but some- 

 times laterally flattened a little and with cross-section vertically oval, 

 apparently never sulcate, often appearing 4-angled by the contraction 

 of the walls at the sutures. Flowers 10-20, loosely short-spicate, al- 

 most sessile, spreading, light-colored and purple-tipped, not narrow, 

 1-1.5 cm. long, rather stubby. Banner about as long as calyx tube, 7- 

 10 mm. long, oval, arcuate remote from the tip of cah-x tube in a gen- 

 tle arc to 45-90 degrees, whitish or purple-tinged around the edges, 

 with sides reflexed a little along the middle. Wings narrowly-oblong 

 and rounded, arched a little, about 2 mm. wide, a little longer than 

 keel and 2 mm shorter than banner, purple. Keel straight, about 5 

 mm. long, the end abruptly erect and 3 mm. high and with rounded 

 apex. Calyx tube broad, 6-7 mm. long and 4 mm. high, flattened lat- 

 erally a little, short-cylindric, attached in line with the fleshy base, 

 the upper side slightly convex and cleft deeper above, short-woolly, 

 the deltoid teeth about 1-3 mm. long. Bracts ovate to oblong, hyaline 

 long-ciliate, 3-5 mm. long and longer than the stout pedicels. Pedun- 

 cles stout, about as long as the leaves or more, and with the floral ra- 

 chis, exceeding them, arcuate, 1-L5 dm. long. Leaves rarely 1 dm. 



