Descriptive Flora 



105 



flowers on long, slender, leafless axillary stalks. Leaves 

 palmately compound. Upper leaflets 3, lower 4 or 5. Corolla 

 y 8 " or less long. Pods small, short, 1 to 2-seeded, densely dotted 

 with black glands. April to July. Often mistaken for Alfalfa. 



Psoralen rJtombifolia Torr. & Gray. Brown-flowered Psoralea. 



Curious plant with spreading, vine-like stems and small 

 clusters of about 6 small, morocco-red or reddish-brown, bonnet- 

 shaped flowers, terminating long axillary stalks. Leaves com- 

 pound, alternate. Leaflets 3, ovate to rhombic or rounded, en- 

 tire. Pods short, hairy, 1-seeded, less than y 2 inch long. Spring 

 and summer. Widespread. Genus receives its name from Gr. 

 psoraleos, scabby, from the dots on the leaves. 



Eyserihardtia amorphoides H. B. K. Rock-brush. 



Shrubs with fragrant white flowers and a disagreeable odor 

 in leaves, branches and stems. Leaves pinnately compound. 

 Leaflets 11 to 31, small, gland-dotted. Flowers white, bonnet- 

 shaped, very small, thickly set around the tips of the many 

 branches. Pods erect, slightly curved, less than one inch long. 

 March to November. 



Parosela aurm (Nutt.) Britton. Golden Dalea. Pussy-foot Dalea. 



Pale, swaying, wand-like stems tipped with thick, furry, 

 silky gray spikes, y 2 to 3" long, ornamented with a circle of tiny, 

 yellow flowers near the tip. Leaves compound, 1 to 2" long. 

 Leaflets 5 to 9, oblong to oblanceolate, pale, small, covered with 

 appressed hairs underneath. The yellow corollas set in densely 

 silky-haired calyxes make the cylindrical spikes soft as pussy fur. 

 Upper petal short. Lower two petals forming the keel long, a 

 characteristic of all Paroselas. Pods tiny, containing one to two 

 seeds and almost hidden in the numerous fuzzy calyx cups. May 

 to fall. On the chalk hills of the Edwards Plateau. 



Pwmsela pogormthem (A. Gray) Vail. Purple Dalea. 



Low branching plants sprinkled with small, silky-haired 

 spikes of dainty violet flowers. Leaves compound. Leaflets 5 to 



