144 LEGUMINOS^. Astragalus. 



Var. glutinosa, Watson. More or less covered with stout spreading glandular 

 hairs, especially the peduncles, which are shorter than the spikes : calyx very 

 glandular. — G. glutinosa, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, H. i. 298. 



The typical form of the species ranges from "Washington Territory to Hudson's Bay and south- 

 ward to Arkansas, New Mexico, and Nevada, and may be found on stream-banks in Northeastern 

 California. The rarer variety has been collected in Washington Territory {Nuttall, I/yalT), and 

 in Corral Hollow, Alameda Co., Brewer. It is described as having the wings and keel tinged 

 with purple ; the fruit is not known. The leaves in both forms are often sprinkled beneath with 

 minute resinous globules. 



13. ASTRAGALUS, Toum. Rattle-weed. (By A. Gray.) 



Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla and its slender-clawed petals usually narrow : keel not 

 pointed. Stamens diadelphous. Stigma terminal and minute. Legume (pod) 

 very various, commonly turgid or inflated, one or both sutures usually projecting 

 inward more or less, the dorsal one frequently so much as to divide the cell into 

 two. Seeds few or many, on slender stalks, generally small for the size of the pod. 

 — Herbs, or a few woody at base ; with unequally pinnate leaves, and rather small 

 flowers, chiefly in simple spikes or racemes from the axils ; the peduncle commonly 

 elongated. — Gray, Rev. in Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 188 ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 435. 



A vast genus, of five or six hundred species, mainly of the northern hemisphere and the tem- 

 perate or frigid zones, most numerous in Asia, and next in North America between the Missis- 

 sippi and the Pacific. In California they have the reputation of being poisonous to sheep, which 

 would be most unexpected were it not that several Papilionacece of Australia are known to be so. 

 The fruit is needed for the determination of the species. To aid in this rather difficult matter 

 an artificial key is here given. Besides the following, several other of the almost 150 North 

 American species now known may reach California or its borders ; but it is impossible to indicate 

 them beforehand. 



Oxttropis, DC, a genus which is distinguished from Astragalus by a subulate beak at the 

 tip of the keel, might be expected at alpine elevations in the Sierra Nevada, at least in the 

 northern portion. But no representative has been met with within or near the State. 



* Leaflets not prickly-pointed. 

 +- Root annual. 

 Pod wrinkled, didymous, 2-seeded. 1. A. DIDYMOCARPUS. 



Pod not wrinkled, several — many-seeded, 

 Narrowly oblong, 5 - 10-seeded : flowers 5 to 9 in a head. 2. A. tener. 



Ovate-oblong, 4-6-seeded: flowers as the last. 3. A. Breweri. 



Linear, falcate : flowers few and crowded, very small. 4. A. Nuttallianus. 



Ovate, inflated, acute or pointed, 



Thin-bladdery, incurved, 1-celled. 5. A. Geyert. 



Chartaceous and bladdery, 2-celled. 6. A. Coulteri. 



Firm-chartaceous, canescent, 1-celled. 7. A. aridus. 



-f- Root perennial. 



++ Pod bladdery-inflated, thin-membranaceous, ample. 



Pod 2-celled, ovate, often purplish-mottled. 



Plant slightly or very pubescent : stems 6 to 18 inches long. 8. A. lentiginosits. 



Plant silvery-silky, nearly stemless. 9. A. platytropis. 



Pod 1-celled, the dorsal suture not intruded, 

 Stipitate in or raised out of the calyx. 

 Stems a span high : pod very obtuse, 



Obovate, 1 or 2 inches long. 10. A. Hookertastjs. 



Oval, an inch or less long. 11. A. Whitneyi. 



Stems a foot or more high. 



Stipe little if at all exceeding the calyx. 



Pod ovate, acute, not oblique. 12. A. oophorus. 



Pod clavate-obovate, oblique, pointed at both ends, pendulous. 13. A. oxyphysus. 

 Pod semi-ovate, acntish, on a recurved rigid stipe. 14. A. curtipes. 



Stipe filiform, an inch long, almost equalling the oval pod. 15. A. leucophylltjs. 



