213 



Icng, hairy. Crowns several to many, very compact and short, the 

 whole forminsr a dense mat.' Whole plant hoary with very dense and 

 closely appressed pubescence of si en4er,: rotund and finely w^arty hairs 

 attached by the middle.. Common on clay mesas and in sandy washes 

 from Price to Green River and southward at least to Ferron Utah in 

 the Lower Temperate life zone. 



173 Astragalus Missouriensis Nntt. Gen..2 (1818). Pod.s about 2 cm. 

 long, 7-8 mm. wide and 5 mm. high, abruptly stout-beaked, rounded at 

 base, straight, rarely a little arcuate, minutely pubescent, strongly and 

 finely cross-wrinkled only, with walls about 1-2 mm. thick when fresh 

 and with the inner wall very woody, the outer skin inclined to peel off 

 a little along the veniral suture but not thr.own back nor wing-like 

 when oltl, pods splitting at both sutures near!}' to the middle and the 

 whole lengtli ;'.iong the ventral suture when ripe and open at the end, 

 inclined to he 4-sided with both sutures raised as keels, and somewhat 

 obconi.^ire.'ised and with rounded edge and rarely sulcate ventrally, 

 with hea':; .-c;;rrely at all flattened Init subuhitc, cross-section nearly 

 round and cavity a little inflated. Flowers about 1.5 cm. long, purple, 

 9-12. Banner about oval, nearly 1 cm. long, gently arched beyond ca- 

 ly.K teel;h to nearly erect, with sides reflexed about 2 mm. wide below 

 and having an oblong outline, claw white. Wings nearly linear, a little 

 arched, about 1 mm. wide, rounded, about 2-3 mm. longer than keel and 

 4-5 mm. shorter than banner. Keel tlie same as in A. cymboi les, the 

 erect part as long as the base, with nearly straight sides anrl abruptly 

 upturned in the middle, about 4 mm. high and v^ ith rounded tip. Ca- 

 lyx tube about 7 mm. long, and 3 mm. high, nigrescent, short-cylin- 

 dric, and with straight sides, somewhat laterally/ flattened, nearly trun- 

 cate at base and inserted near the lower corner, somewhat oblique at 

 tip and clel'f a little deeper above, ■ the subulate teeth spreading and 

 about 2 mm. long. Pedicels short and stout, much shorter than the 

 subulate-lanceolate bracts which are hyaline and hairy and about 5 

 mm. long. Peduncles stout, mostly erect, about 1 dm. long and longer 

 than the leaves. Leaves not 1 dm. long, with petioles about as long as 

 the rachis, rarely persisting long on the old stems. Leaflets about 5 

 (3-7) pair,s, inclined to be acute at both ends and elliptical, 5-10 mm. 

 long, somewhat thickened, strongly petiolulate, hoary with very fine 

 and appressed soft hairs v>diich are flattened in the middle and very 

 warty and often twisted and attached near the middle. .Stems short, 

 an inch or so long, slender, with internodes seldom as long as the tri- 

 angular and conspicuous but not large stipules, several from a woody 

 root, and habit being more that of .\. argophyllus but not hugging the 

 ground closely. This species grows from Assiniboia and the Saskat- 

 ewan, through the Plains of ^Montana and Dakotah southward to Kan- 

 sas and New !Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, and westv/ard to Santa 

 Fee and the borders of the Rio Grade drainage at Farmington New 

 Mexico and thence northward in the mountains of Colorado but not 

 on the Pacific slope, common on the Laramie plains and northward 

 through Montana to the foot of the Continental Divide but not appar- 

 ently on the Pacific drainage, upper part of the Lower and lower part 

 of the Middle Temperate life zones, in gravelly and well drained soil. 



In the var. cuspidocarpus (.Sheldon) the dorsal suture is some- 

 times iiroduced a little and then is A. Shortianus var. minor Gray in 

 part. This si)ecies is the eastern representative of the beautiful A. 

 amphioxys but they never seem to occupy the same region. There is 

 very little to separate this species from A. amphioxys var. vcspcrtinus 

 except the finely ribbed and straight and blunt pods, and leaflets in- 

 elined to be diamond-shaped, and the smaller flowers. Thi% species ap- 

 pears to require the summer showers and cooler air of the Plains and 

 blooms in May, while its congener of the Pacific slope blooms from 

 March to early May and grows in a region with less humidity and few 

 rains and h.igher temperature, and varies far more. A. rerr.ulcus var. 



