646 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



of material now on hand, it appears that A. grallator 

 Watson is only an abnormal form, due either to insects or 

 some fungoid agency. The normal young pods are vetch- 

 like, and with age become greatly obcompressed. The 

 corrugations are due in their intensity or faintness to 

 moisture and shade, or the opposite. I find that these two 

 causes, which are purely accidental, produce all the forms 

 hitherto separated as species and varieties, and so have no 

 distributional significance. The synonyms are : A. Hay- 

 denianus vars. major and Nevadensis Jones, A. scohinatu- 

 lus Sheldon, A. demissns Greene, A. Jefsoni Sheldon, 

 and A. grallator Watson. 



Astragalus nitidiis Douglas, Herb. Hort. Soc. Hooker, 

 Fl. I, 149. A careful examination of all the figures and 

 descriptions of A . adsurgens Pall, and A . Laxnianni 

 Jacq., together with specimens of Maximowics from 

 Japan, lead me to feel quite certain that our plant is dis- 

 tinct from both of them, and is the same as A. striattis 

 Nutt. T. & G., Fl. I, 330. 



Astragalus agrestis Douglas, Hook., Fl. i, 148. This 

 has been erroneously refefred to A. hypoglottis L. Our 

 species has oblong to linear green bracts, which are very 

 conspicuous, obtuse at the base of the head of flowers, 

 and acute toward the top of the head, often with a hyaline 

 margin, about equaling the calyx tube; calyx cylindric, 

 teeth linear-subulate, i" long; banner obovate, 6" long, 

 slightly ascending (15°), sides reflexed more or less; 

 wings linear, nearly as long as the banner, which is 2" 

 longer than the keel; banner arched from a point beyond 

 the calyx tips; pods very deeply sulcate, often almost to 

 ventral. suture, and septum narrow, usually white-woolly, 

 oval to oblong, splitting the calyx, shortly stipitate; leaves 

 narrowly elliptical, never acute, usually emarginate when 

 mature; stipules long-sheathing opposite the petioles, 



