290 



LEGUMINOSiE. 



Monterey, Brewer, no. 704; Glenwood, Santa Cruz Mountains; 

 San Mateo Co.; Marin Co.; Sonoma Co.; Napa Valley, and north- 

 ward to Mendocino Co. Not known from the inner North Coast 

 Ranges nor from Contra Costa or Alameda Cos. Leaves and leaflets 

 so variable in size, outline, and pubescence that Watson's T. Cali- 

 fornia (founded primarily on specimens from Corte Madera) is here 

 readily included. The var. velutina Greene from Mt. Hamilton has 

 small leaflets with a dense velvety pubescence. 



3. XYLOTHERM I A Greene. 



Very rigid and spiny evergreen shrub. Leaves palmately 1 to 

 3-foliolate, nearly sessile and without stipules. Flowers large, 

 purple, axillary, solitary and sbort-pediceled. Calyx campanulate 

 (turbinate or clavate at base), the border with 4 very low broad teeth. 

 Petals equal, the banner orbicular with reflexed sides, the wing- and 

 keel-petals oblong, the latter distinct and straight. Stamens distinct. 

 Pod linear, flat, stipitate, straight, several-seeded. (Greek xulon, 

 wood, and thermos, lupine.) 



1. X. montana (Nutt.) Greene. Pickeringia. Densely branched 

 shrub, 3 to 5 ft. high, the branchlets very spinose; leaflets 

 oblong-oblanceolate, acute at each end, entire, 2 to 6 lines long; 

 flowers near the ends of the branchlets, rose-purple, | in. long, on 

 very short pedicels, bearing 2 minute subulate bractlets near the 

 middle; stamens persistent; pod exserted on the stipe, about 2 in. 

 long, 6 to 10-seeded, somewhat constricted between the seeds. 



Higher altitudes of the Coast Ranges: frequent on dry slopes from 

 Mt. St. Helena, the Vaca Mountains and Mt. Tamalpais southward 

 to Southern California. May- June. 



4. ASTRAGALUS L. Rattle-weed. Loco-weed. 

 Herbs with odd-pinnate leaves. Flowers purple, pale vellow or 

 white, in spikes, racemes or heads. Racemes mostly spike-like, either 

 the pedicels very short or the flowers crowded. Calyx 5-toothed. 

 Corolla usually long and narrow; keel obtuse. Stamens diadelphous; 

 anthers all alike. Pod 2 to many-seeded, commonly turgid or 

 inflated and bladder-like, 1 -celled or partly 2-celled by the intrusion 

 of one or both sutures, tardily dehiscent. Seeds small, usually 

 reniform on slender funiculi. (Ancient Greek name for some legu- 

 minous plant.) 



Annuals. 

 Pods didymous, wrinkled, 2-seeded. 

 Spikes capitate or oblong; pods erect, little exserted from the calyx . . . 



1. A. didymocarpus. 



Spikes cylindrical; pods deflexed, well exserted from the calyx 



2. A. nigrescens. 



Pods not didymous, nor wrinkled, several-seeded; inflorescence capitate. 



Pods narrowly oblong, not beaked 3. A. tener. 



Pods with a stout body and long incurved beak. . . 4. A. Breweri. 

 Perennials; pods 1-celled except no. 11. 

 Pods inflated or bladder-like and 



Stipitate. 



Stipe long and filiform; leaflets 21 to 31 5. A. leucophyllus. 



