a27 



above and hoary below as also are the stems. Stipules large aiid very- 

 wide, veined, smooth, nearly 1 cm. long, sheathing below. Stems few 

 prostrate to ascending, slender, hardly 1 dm. long. Peduncles and 

 petioles with white, short, narrow hairs closely appre.«sed. This was 

 found growing among the junipers and pinons at the head of the 

 Grand Wash south (and a little west) of St. George (Utah) in Arizona 

 on the gravelly mesa. Lower Temperate life zone. It so closely re- 

 sembled A. cibarius that I only collected a few specimens to show the 

 locality. This place was above Pagumpa, the Wash joins the Colora- 

 do at the abandoned Pierce"s bcrrv. 



185 Astragalus malacus Gray Proc Am. Acad. 7 3?,6 (!S68). Pods 

 3:> cm. long, shortly stipicate, much laterally flattened, about 7-8 mm. 

 high and 2 mm. wide, chartacenus and but little fleshy, nearly straight 

 to strongly arcuate, *2-celledexce,;t at very tip by a hyaline partition, 

 but sulcate ventrally, and vvitli that -iitnre rather thick and' raised, 

 narrowly sulcate dorsally to the tii-i. j' '.-'>■ --haggy with hairs 1-3 

 mm. long which are spreading at a ri-l:; an.-iie, n-^ually mottled on the 

 surface, with cross-section linear-triarjgular, rather abruptly acumi- 

 nate at tip into a flat and vpcnrvecl beak which varies from several 

 times longer than wide or shorter or sometimes even deltoid, at other 

 times with very long and subulate beak, papery when dry, densely set. 

 Flowers about 2 cm. long, pink-purple on the blades, .-^preiding and 

 rather densely spicate. Banner oblanceolate. 7-10 mm. long, abruptly 

 arched beyond the calyx teetli to 30-45 degrees, with sides reflexed 1 

 mm. wide in the middle, about ?> mm longer than keel, white spot large, 

 purple-veined. Wings linear, barely longer than keel, somewhat ar- 

 cuate, about 1 mm. wide, and with rounded and horizontal tips. Keel 

 about 5 mm, long, with straight base and then abruptly arclied to 

 erect, 3 mm. high, with tip blunt and rounded or truncate. Calyx tube 

 about 7 mm. long, with sides about straight, almost truncate at base 

 and thick and rathei obljriuely inserted, very thin, nigrescent, and 

 shaggy with long and spreading hairs, cflet deeper above, laterally flat- 

 tened. Calyx teeth subulate, about 2-4 mm. long. Pedicels almost 

 none. Bracts subulate-lanceolate, from half to nearly as long as the 

 calyx, hyaline, long-fringed. Peduncles stout, about 1 dm. long and 

 hardly as long as the leaves, the floral rachis so short at first as to put 

 the flowers in heads and then elongating with age. Leaves 1-2 dm. 

 long, with stout and tapering petiole* and rachis, the latter the longer. 

 Leaflets 7-10 pairs, ellij/tical to oval, 1-2 cm. long, green or dark, with 

 long and shaggy spreading hairs like the stems, peduncles and calyx, 

 with fine hairs which are somewhat flattened and twisted and from an 

 enlarged base. Stipules very thin and hyaline and green-veined, trian- 

 gular-acuminate, 1-1.5 cm. long, adnate. not connate. Proper stems 

 rarely a foot long, with few internodes, the upper one rarely 8 cm. long, 

 tufted from the few and woody crowns. Pubescence variable from 

 1-3 mm. long. Plants growing in good gravelly soil on benches in the 

 sagebrush, I^ower Temperate life zone, throughout the western part 

 of the Great Basin and southward to the Mojave desert, northward to 

 the rim of the Basin and Stein's Mt., eastward but a short distance 

 from the base of the Sierras, Owen's valley Candelaria Nevada and the 

 Blue Mts Oregon, and up the Snake river in the Columbia Basin from 

 Huntington to Glenn's Kerry. 



Astragalus malacus var. cbfalcEtus (Xclson). A. obfalcatus Nel- 

 son Bot. Gaz. 54 -111 (1912). This is a robust form (hardly de-c'\ir.g 

 varietal rank) with much larger leaves. Pods falcate, 3-4 cm. long, 

 6-8 mm. h igh. 3-4 mm. wide, long-ncuminate. Calyx lobes about as 

 long as tube. F>racts with long and capillary tijis. Leaflets 2 cm. 

 long. Plants about a foot high. Intcrgrades also occur. Lioml'use 

 to Huntington. This was first found by Cleburne at Weiser in 1883, 

 then by myself there and at Glend's Ferry about 1903. 



