Xy. A PEELIMINARY LIST OF THE NORTH 

 AMERICAN SPECIES OF ASTEAGALIIS. 



Edmund P. Sheldon. 



The care and arrangement of the growing collection of As- 

 tragali in the herbarium of the Geological and Natural History 

 Survey of Minnesota and the large number of new species pub- 

 lished since the synopsis by Dr. Sereno Watson in the appen- 

 dix of the Botany of the King Expedition, has shown the 

 necesssity for a list of the North American species including 

 those published since Dr. Watson's careful work on the genus. 



The work of the writer has been in the hope of providing 

 such a list and at the same time laying the foundation of a 

 systematic, morphological and distributional study of the 

 North American species of Astragalus. No departure has been 

 made from the method of sectioning the species adopted by 

 Drs. Gray and Watson. The old section names have been 

 used whenever they do not conflict with heretofore published 

 generic names. A division into Phaca and Euastragalus is used, 

 but it should not be considered a definite limitation, as most 

 students of the genus admit, when they take into consideration 

 the large number of species intermediate in their characters 

 and conveniently to be referred neither to Astragalus nor to 

 Phaca as these genera have been limited. 



In the preparation of this paper the writer has been much 

 aided by the kindness and generosity of a large number of 

 American botanists. To Dr. B. L. Robinson I am especially 

 indebted for the privilege of examiniag the collections in his 

 charge, including the types of most of the species described 

 by Dr. Asa Gray and Dr. Sereno Watson. The followiog are 

 some of the American botanists who have loaned me the col- 

 lections owned by them or entrusted to their care: Dr. William 

 Trelease of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Dr. Charles E. 

 Bessey of the University of Nebraska, Professor A. H. Hitch • 

 cock of Manhattan, Kansas, Mr. P. A. Rydberg of Lincoln, 

 Nebraska, Professor G. D. Swezey of Doane College, Crete, 



