Notes on Fabaceae—I 
PER AXEL RYDBERG 
HOMALOBUS Nutt. 
For several years I have worked on genera of the Fabaceae 
for the North American Flora. Two parts containing the tribe 
Psoraleae have already been published, and the manuscript for 
the Indigoferae and a large part of the Galegeae is ready. My 
work has taken me to Astragalus and related genera. I have 
heard a rumor that M. E. Jones has been working on an illustrat- 
ed revision of Astragalus, and I wish that this had been published 
so that I could have availed myself of it in my studies. It 
would perhaps have helped me to avoid some of the errors which 
are so likely to creep in. 
There is little room for critical notes in the F lora, and yet 
notes of this character are necessary for a proper understanding 
of my disposition of genera and for a just appreciation of the 
amount of work that I have done on the group. It is my 
intention, therefore, to publish a series of preliminary notes 
in order to thresh out any unavoidable criticism, which might 
come from certain quarters, before my final monograph is 
published, If I should criticise any fellow botanist in this 
undertaking I do it in order to bring out the facts. 
Just before the present paper was completed there appeared 
an article by J. F. Macbride, entitled: A revision of Astragalus, 
subgenus Homalobus, in the Rocky Mountains.* Now it may 
perhaps seem superfluous for me to go into details and publish 
another paper on the same subject so soon. So far as generic 
and specific limits are concerned, I do not think that either 
Macbride or Jones can ever agree with me. It surprises me, 
however, that so many of my species, even some that had been 
sneered at by Jones, have been accepted by Macbride. That 
he should have reduced some of my species to varieties I might 
have expected, since I do not see where to draw lines between 
species and varieties and prefer a binomial name to a trinomial 
* Contr. Gray Herb. II. 65: 28-39. 1922. 
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