315 



St. George Utah. Lower Temperate life zone and going a little int» 

 he Tropical, growing on gravelly soil on mesas in open places. The 

 whole plant is hoary with closely appressed pubescence and the stems 

 are about prostrate. 



In the same region where the two species overlap in Nevada this 

 hybridizes with A. J.ayneae, A. amphioxys X Layneae, with the pods 

 of amphioxys and tjie flowers and somewhat woolly fine pubescence 

 of Layneae, peduncles 1.5-2 dm. long and with rachis often 1 dm. long. 

 C alyx nigrescent and 5 mm. long, 3 mm. high, short-cylindric, cleft 

 deeper above and with uneqiial teeth, horizontal. Pods rather shortly 

 acute at both ends, about 3 cm. long, about the same as the variety 

 vespertinus. dorsal suture not intruded. Chimihuevis Mts. Arizona 

 (south of Franconia) and my No. 5010 from the copper mine west of 

 St. George Utah, April 4 1894. Some of the plants are elearly 3 years 

 old. The flowers are rather short and stubby, about 2 cm long, tht 

 banner not much longer than the wing, the keel broad. 



Astragali;s amphioxys var. veepertinus (Sheldon Minn. Dot. Stud. 

 P 150 1894 as species). This is a form hardly deserving varietal rank, 

 with pods about 3 cm. long, narrowly oblong and mostly straight, 

 with the coatings inclined to separate along tlie ventral suture as in A 

 cymboides and with the dry cross-section inclined to be quadrangular, 

 the pods with triangular-acute tip and a little narrowed but not acumi- 

 nate at base. Leaflets not many and fewer pairs, obovate and obtuse. 

 Peduncles normally longer than the leaves. Calyx teeth often 2 

 mm. long. Conspicuous as are the extremes among the forms of this 

 species there is every gradation in all the chaiactcrs in the same soil 

 and locality. This variety is the common form on the clay slopes and 

 mesas of the Navajo Basin. Coville's plant from th« Panamint Mts. 

 is probably something else. 



Astragalus amphioxys var. cymbellus N. Var. I,ow and nearly 

 acaulcscent winter annuals. Leaflets from elliptical and acute to 

 broadly obovate and strongly apiculate. 3-6 pairs. Flowers large, white 

 or pink-purple, about 2 cm. long, narrow, with calyx teeth about one 

 fourth as long as the tube. Pedicels short and stout. Bract.s lanceo- 

 late, hyaline, 4-6 mm. long. Banner oval. Wings linear and purple- 

 lipped. Pods oblong to narrowly so, shortly acuminate, narrowed and 

 rounded below, about 2 cm long, and 8-LS mm. wide, nearly round 

 when fresh or a little oblate, with a very firm and woody inner wall 

 and a very soft outer pulp which is transparent and nearly 2 mm. wide. 

 and with the outer skin very thin. The ventral suture extends through 

 the pulp a$ a thin ridge, the dorsal suture also but very narrow. The 

 seeds are horizontal and the cavity smooth within. When dry the pod 

 is deltoid to diamond-shaped in cross-section, with both sutures very 

 much raised and thickened especially the ventral, the sides being very 

 convex along the middle. At maturity and when very dry the outer 

 skin splits away from the inner along the ventral suture throughout 

 and becomes explanate giving the pod an oval appearance. The pulp 

 when dry is often represented by a cellular paper like that of a hor- 

 net's nest which fluffs up along the border and inside of the very thick 

 sutural rims. The seed pedicels run through to the outer skin and ap- 

 p«ar as teeth on the rim. Sutures not intruded. Common in the .San 

 Rafael Swell and the western side of the Navajo Basin generally on 

 clay slopes and benches. It connects with the species by all sorts of 

 intergracles. The ventral ruture varies from much more to much less 

 convex than the dorsal. 



175 As' ragalus Ncwbcrryi Gray Proc. .Am. .A.cad. 12 55 (1876). 

 The type of the .species is the most congested and starved form, and 

 is not at all representative of its normal form though very varinhle. 

 Pods nearly 2 cm. long and 1.5 cm. wide, ovate to laearly globose, con- 

 Kpicuously inflated, quite oblique, often a little sulcata at base at both 

 futures and somewhat obcompressed, but Ittsrally if at all flattened 



