3U 



ChloricUc is another clos4 relative of this species growing in a still 

 more arid region. 



174 Astragalus amphioxys Gray Proc. Am. Acad. 13 336 (1878) 

 This is a very variable species. The tj'pe has pods acuminate at both 

 ends, and the tip tapering into a long and curved subulate beak, the 

 pods often bent into a half circle, 5-8 mm. wide and high, or when 

 much obcompressed 8 mm. wide and 2 mm. high, the cross-|SCCtion 

 then being oblong when fresh, and linear when dry, but cross-section 

 normally nearly round when fresh and tricjuetrous when dry, that is, 

 triangular-cordate, when fresh the surface is ashy and even, when dry 

 it is smoothish from ventral suture about to the middle and then 

 strongly reticulate-corrugated to tiie dorsal suture and along it from 

 end to end, when fresh neither suture is evident but both are very 

 thin and sharp and raised externally along the edges and much thick- 

 ened underneath when dry, when pods are only a little arcuate and 

 scarcely sulcate dorsally the cross-section is inclined to be 4-angled as 

 in A. cymboides and Missouricnsis, and with the same rounded sides, 

 but normally it is so sulcate dorsally as to be triquetrous, walls 

 about 2 mm. thick, neither the outer nor inner skin woody when fresh, 

 thin-cartilaginous when dry, not mottled normally but green, rarely 

 old pods show mottling. Flowers in the type rather narrow and near- 

 ly 3 cm long, loosely short-spicate. rarely 10. Banner oval, gently 

 arched beyond the calyx tips from 10-60 degrees or rarely more, with 

 sides reflexed 2-3 mm. wide below the middle giving it an oblong to 

 triangular outline, groove very wide and shallow and often 7 mm. wide, 

 ■white spot truncate above to obcordatc and oblong to cuneate and 

 ragged above with little purple veinlets and stippled, blade darkest 

 near the white spot and fading out toward the edges. Wings linear to 

 oblong-lanceolate, rounded and obtuse, oblique, ascending, concave to 

 keel but turned out at its tip and horizontal and with their tips de- 

 clined and conniving over the keel, 2 mm. wide, 1-2 mm. longer than 

 keel 4 mm. shorter than banner. Keel about 7 mm. long, abruptly and 

 a little arched above the middle to erect, or nearly so, the tip trian- 

 gular and obtuse but not much rounded, 3 mm. high. Calyx tube 7-10 

 mm. long and 4 mm. wide, the upper side arcuate a little, the lower 

 side straight, obliquely triangular at base and attached in line with it 

 and cleft deeper above, a little narrowed at tip and somewhat lat- 

 erally flattened, cylindrical, ashy or variably nigrescent with close- 

 pressed hairs, the triangular-subulate teeth equal, a third to one 

 fourth as long as the tube, ascending. Pedicels almost none, very 

 stout. Bracts triangular, about 1 cm. long, hairy. Peduncles 5-15 cm. 

 long, rarely as long as the leaves, rather stout and strict, the fruiting 

 rachis, short and pods few. Leaves 1-1.5 dm. long, narrow, the leaf- 

 rachis rather longer than the petiole. Leaflets elliptical to oval, in- 

 clined to be acute at both ends, rarely obovate and diamond-shaijcd, 

 petiolulaic, rather distant, 5-lOpairs, not niuchthickened. Stemsrather 

 slender, rarely 1 dm. long, zigzag. Stipules rarely overlapping, deltoid 

 to triangular, seldom 1 cm long, adnate, not connate. Plants mostly 

 biecnials but blooming the first year as winter annuals. \\ ith straight 

 and fleshy tap root which is elongated and slender and which at tip is 

 branched into a few crowns. A very earlj' bloomer and not continu- 

 ing long. Pods easily scattered by the w'ind, opening both at tip 

 and base for a short distance. This species though with less easily 

 blow-n pods than the former two species is commot througout the Xa- 

 vajo Basin from the base of the Uintas to Steamboat Springs Colora- 

 do and southward to thh Mogollonsand the Little Colorado at least to 

 Winslow, and extending over on the Rio Grande but rare as far as El 

 Paso Texas, throughout the plateau of northern .Arizona and dr)wn its 

 southern flanks to Prcscott and around the western flanks, also ex- 

 tending down the Colorado through the Grand Canon and westward 

 at least to the Charleston Mts. and northward to Moapa Nevada and 



