Hamofli. 292 



mm. long, wide, spreading. Banner about 4 mm. long, oval, arched' 

 abruptly at calyx tips to 45°, with sides reflexed about 1 mm. wide, 

 about 2 mm. longer than keel. Wings obliquely lanceolate and 

 arched a little, about 1 mm. wide, much narrower than keel and 

 about as long. Keel large, nearly 4 mm. long and high, a little con- 

 vex along the base and much rounded and very obtuse, the whole 

 forming almost a half circle, much separated from banner. Calyx 

 tube about 3 mm. long, acutish and narrowed at base, about equally 

 inserted, oblique and deeper cleft above, with rather sharp sinuses 

 and triangular teeth fully half as long as tube, very closely ap- 

 pressed hoaiy. Pedicels stout, about 1 mm. long and as long as the 

 triangular bracts. Peduncles axillary, slender, 5-7 cm. long, shorter 

 than the leaves, ascending as are the leaves, the floral rachis much 

 shorter. Leaves about 1 dm. long or less, the petiole about half 

 the whole, the rachis tapering but little. Leaflets 3-5 pairs, about 

 oval-obovate, rounded, thick, flat, shortly cuneate below, about 1 cm. 

 long, distant, silvery-hoary with flat, broad, rough, tapering and 

 closely appressed hairs. Stipules deltoid, very small and green, 

 2-3 mm. long. Stems very many from the crown of the slender and 

 erect root, rather stout for the plant, flexuous, the many internodes 

 rarely 3 cm. long, prostrate, a few inches to 2 ft. long. Winter an- 

 nuals. W^hole plant hoary. In rocky gulches along creek beds, In- 

 dian Spring Charleston Mts. to the Mojave desert. Tropical. 



228. Astragalus Howellii Gray Proc. Am. Acad. 15 46 (1879). 

 Pods including stipe fully 3 cm. long, abruptly contracted at both 

 ends and then tapering into a long tip and base, triangular-cordate 

 in cross section to broadly deltoid, mostly as wide as high, shallow- 

 sulcate dorsally, completely 2-celled, chartaceous, with a flat and 

 ensiform tip a little declined, the ventral suture concave in the 

 middle and convex a little above, raised and thickened and with a 

 thin and slightly raised edge along tLe middle, the body finely 

 reticulated, minutely woolly at first, half-narrowly-eliiptical, becom- 

 ing smootl-M the beak 3-6 mm. long and straight, the stout stipe as 

 long as to 3 times as long as calyx tube. Flowers dirty white, be- 

 coming yellowish, about 1 cm. long, sisveral. Banner about 7 mm. 

 long, oblong-oval, arched abruptly to 45"-60" from calyx tips, with 

 sides reflexed, about 2 mm. longer than wings. Wings 2 mm. longer 

 than keel, oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, arched to 45", about 2 mm. 

 wide. Keel very wide and blunt, about 4 mm. long and 3 mm. 

 high, the tip only a little higher than the rest and rather truncate, 

 erect and rounded sharply from near the base, not pui-ple, with a 

 minute 'out-turned boss at the end. Calyx tube about 4 mm. long 

 and 3 mm. high, a little narrowed at base and acutish, and attached 

 to the slender pedicel near the corner, oblique at tip, cleft deeper 

 above and with broad sinuses, the teeth triangular and a little shor- 

 ter than the tube, nigrescent. Pedicels in truit 2-3 mm. long, re- 

 curved, mostly longer than the minute bracts. Peduncles in the type 

 longer than the leaves, strict and stout, about 1 dm. long, the fruit- 

 ing rachis hardly half as long. Leaves 5-7 cm. long, the upper ses- 

 sile, with 8-9 pairs of linear-elliptical leaflets nearly contiguous 

 and obtuse and long-petiolulate and cuneate, at base. Stipules 

 rather thick, about 7 mm. long. Stems ascending, weak, soft, slen- 

 der, very many, branched below, from a woody root, about a foot 

 high, with many internodes somewhat shorter than the leaves, very 

 leafy. A very variable plant. In the lower Columbia Basin east of 

 the Cascades. Lower Temperate life zone. Blooming in May. 



Astragalus Howellii var. misellus (Watson Proc. Am. Acad. 21 

 449 (1886) as species). This differs from the type in the flowers 

 being 5-8 mm. long, the peduncles 3-7 cm. long and shorter than the 

 leaves and about half as long as the fruiting rachis, leaflets about 5 

 pairs, internodes much shorter than the leaves and with a congested 

 habit somewhat csespitose. It is seemingly very distinct but the 

 pods vary from acuminate at both ends and long-stipitate to almost 

 sessile and abruptly triangular at both ends, it is then A. drepanolo- 



