2i8 Muhlenbergia, Volume 2 



other places about San Francisco. This is doubtless the plant 

 Mr. Sheldon had in view when he coined the name, but I am 

 not certain that it is the original Astragalus Crotalariae Gray, 

 not Benth. At any rate the name needs transferring to Phaca, 



Hesperastragalus gambellianus (Sheldon) Heller, Muhlen- 

 bergia, 3: 87, 1905. 

 Astragalus ga'tnbellianus Sheldon, Minn. Bot. Stud. 1: 19. 



1894, 

 Astragalus nigrescens Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. II. 1 : 152. 

 . 1848; not Pall. 1800. . 

 No. 8155, collected April 11, on gravelly hillsides near Pol- 

 lasky, Fresno county. The species is widely distributed in Cal- 

 ifornia, occurring as far north as Redding at the upper end of 

 the Sacramento valley, and is common in the San Francisco 

 bay region. The type came from Catalina island. 



Hesperastragalus coiiipactus 



Annual, diffusely branched from the base, 2 or 3 dm. high 

 (or less) and as broad, the slender stems strigose: leaves oblong, 

 the largest 3 or 4 cm. long, with 5 to 7 pairs of leaflets; petioles 

 5 or 6 mm. long; leaflets oblong or somewhat elliptical, 5-7 mm. 

 long^, 2-3, mm. wide, commonly emarginate, strigose on both sur- 

 faces, especially below, not crowded, petiolules less than i mm. 

 long: stipules 2 mm. long, short-acuminate from a broad trian- 

 gular base 2 mm. wide, pubescent like the stems: flower heads 

 short conical, about 7 mm. long and as wide at base, somewhat 

 larger in fruit, usually one from each leaf axis, the slender ped- 

 uncles often twice the length of the leaves: calyx 3 mm. long,, 

 densely covered with black strigose hairs: flowers small, violet- 

 blue, the banner almost plane, only slightly cSue^'V^ on the back 

 with rounded entire apex; wings about one-fourth shorter than 

 the banner, standing almost parallel to it and away from the 

 keel; keel equaling the. wings, broad in proportion to the flower, 

 the hooded apex a little deeperthan the body: pods densely stri- 

 gose with whitish hairs, obovoidroblong in shape, 4 mm. long. 



