V. PLANTS WRIGHTIAN^. 51 



spreading or drooping, each subtended by a small subulate bract. Bractlets none. 

 Calyx 5 lines long, gibbous at the base ; the lobes about half the length of the 

 5 -nerved tube, triangular-subulate, the two upper united nearly to the middle. 

 Vexillum with a broad claw : the wings and keel-petals with longer and slender 

 claws, their lamina obliquely truncate at the base. Anthers uniform, oblong. Ovary 

 slender, smooth, as well as the filiform style, up to the apex, where it is surrounded 

 with a conspicuous, dense, and somewhat unequal, aspergilliform tuft of hairs ; and 

 the depressed terminal stigma is bearded with similar, but rather shorter hairs. 

 The pendulous pods are two inches or more in length, a quarter of an inch wide, 

 often narrowed where the seeds are abortive, but continuous, flat, usually ripening 

 only 3 or 4 round and flat seeds. — Unable to refer this striking plant to any known 

 genus of Galegeee, I venture to characterize it as a new one, which I dedicate to 

 the memory of the late Dr. Robert Peter, who was the worthy associate of Dr. 

 Short in botanical researches, and in publications on the Botany of Kentucky. 

 Very few specimens were obtained by Mr. Wright in 1 849, and those only in fruit ; 

 but an abundance of complete and beautiful specimens occur in that portion of his 

 collection of 1851 which has come to hand. The genus is nearest allied, perhaps, 

 to Caragana. The aspergilliform style is something as in Lessertia.* 



139. Astragalus Wrightii, Gray, PI. Lindh. 2. p. 176: annuus, pumilus, hir- 

 suto-canescens ; caule subsimplici ; stipulis subulatis liberis ; foliolis 3 - 5-jugis 

 oblongis acutiusculis ; pedunculis folio longioribus paucifloris ; floribus capitatis 

 parvis ; calyce hirsutissimo, lobis lineari-subulatis attenuatis corollam violaceam su- 

 perantibus legumine oblongo hirsute subtereti fere biloculari 6 - i-spermo dimidio 

 brevioribus. — Dry soil, near Austin, Texas. Also found in Western Texas, by 

 Lindheimer. An inconspicuous, well-marked species. •(" 



* In Dr. Wislizenus's collection is a Choetocalyx which shows none of the setose glands from which the 

 name of the genus was taken : — 



ChjEtocalyx Wislizeni (sp. nov.) : prostratus, puberulus ; foliolis 5 rotundatis venulosis concoloribus ; 

 calycibus non glanduloso-setosis, dentibus parvis ; vexillo extus puberulo ; carina alis subduplo breviore ; 

 staminibus diadelphis. — Battle-ground of Sacramento, near Chihuahua, Mexico. — Herbaceous, slender: 

 leaflets half an inch long, stipules short. Corolla golden-yellow. Fruit not seen. 



t I avail myself of the ample materials accumulated in Sir William Hooker's herbarium to arrive at a 

 better understanding of Astragalus caryocarpus, and the species nearly allied to it, viz. : — 



A. CARYOCARPUS, Ker. Bot. Reg. t. 176 ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 150 ; Torr. Sf Gray, Fl. 1. p. 331 ; 

 Engelm. Sf Gray, PI. Lindh. p. 34 {no. 230) ^ 2. p. 176 {no. 596). A. carnosus, Nutt. Gen. 2. p. 

 100 (non Pursh, nisi fructu). A. succulentus, Richard, in Frankl. Jour. ; Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 1324. — 

 This has a violet-purple corolla, and ovate, pointed legumes, about two thirds of an inch in diameter. 

 The two cells are quite small in proportion to the thickness of the walls. — The calyx is as figured in Bol. 

 Reg. t. 176. 4" I. 1324. The pubescence of the foliage, &c., is fine and close, and the whole hue in the 

 living plant (from Missouri) glaucescent, as in the original figure of A. caryocarpus (/. 176) ; but the 

 more northern form of the plant is smoother and greener, as in the figure of A. succulentus, Bot. Reg. i. 

 1324, which accords very well with Richardson's, Douglas's, and Drummond's specimens. No fruit of this 

 northern form is yet known. The hairiness of the calyx, as in the others, may be either white, gray, or 

 blackish. 



A. Mexicantjs, Alph. DC. PI. H. Genev. not. 5. p. 17. t. 3 (excl. fig. 6, 7), which is A. trichocalyx, 

 Nutt. in Torr. ^- Gray, I. c. (though the villosity of the calyx is very variable, and furnishes no reliable 



