141a.  Dalea scandens (Miller) R. T. Clausen var. paucifolia (Coulter) Barneby

(Plate CXXIX)

Foliage always villosulous; primary leaves 2-4.5 cm long, the 7-11 leaflets (4) 5-13 (16) mm long; spikes mostly sessile or almost so, often drooping at tip, (2) 5-15 (20)-flowered, the axis (1) 2-20 (30) mm long; calyx 4.2-6 mm long, the tube ordinarily glabrous or less villosulous than the teeth, the glands in each interval mostly 2-3, prominent externally, the dorsal tooth 2.4-4 mm long; androecium 4.3-5.5 mm long; 2n = 14 (Mosquin).— Collections: 66 (v).

Thickets and thinly wooded or brushy hills of the Gulf Coastal Plain and adjoining piedmont of Sierra Madre Oriental from s. Texas (Nueces, Starr, Cameron cos.) to Veracruz and Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, e. to w. Cuba, s., apparently uncommonly, into the highlands of Chiapas, there reaching 1600 m and passing into var. vulneraria. — Flowering intermittently through the year, but mostly from September to April, the leafy forms prevalent in fall, the drought-depleted forms in the winter months .—Representative: UNITED STATES. Texas: F. B. Jones 3575 (TEX); Rose & Russell 24,191 (NY); Correll 35,549 (OKLA). MEXICO. Tamaulipas: Palmer 119 (F, NY); Gentry 6756 (ARIZ, UC). Ripley & Barneby 14,752 (CAS, DAO, MEXU, NY). Nuevo Leon: Ripley & Barneby 13,560 (CAS, NY), 13,551 (CAS, MEXU, NY, US). San Luis Potosi: Palmer 239 (F, NY); Pringle 2415 (BR, F, GH, MEXU, SD, W); Rzedowski 6846 (ENCB). Veracruz: Sousa 1862 (MEXU); Conzatti 851 (GH); Purpus 2346 (UC, Z), 16,189 (C), 12,006 (F, UC). Yucatan: Gaumer 1728 (F, NY, W), 24,048 (F, NY), 23,221 (F, NY). Oaxaca: Mell, s.n. (NY). Chiapas: Breedlove & Raven 8344 (US); Miranda 7458 (MEXU). CUBA. Habana: Van Hermann 2579 (NY, UC); Baker 1883 (NY); Ekman 13,198 (NY).Dalea scandens (Mill.) R. T. Clausen var. paucifolia (Coult.) Barneby, comb. nov., based on D. domingensis var. paucifolia (with few leaflets) Coult., Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 1: 34. 1890.— "Rio Grande City (Starr County)...Texas." —Holotypus, Nealley 144 in 1889, US! isotypus, NY!

Psoralea humilis (lowly) Mill., Gard. Diet., ed. 8, Psoralea No. 7. 1768 ("Humilus").—Holotypus, labelled "Barba Jovis Americana, humilis, etc. e Vera Cruce, 1730, Houston", BM! — Non Dalea humilis G. Don, 1832. — Parosela humilis (Mill.) Rydb., N. Amer. Fl. 24: 114. 1920.

Dalea thyrsiflora (with flower-spikes in thyrselike panicles) Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 5: 177. 1861. — "Monterey and San Fernando, in the northern part of Mexico, and farther south from Victoria to Tula, coll. Berlandier, no. 763, 846, 1386, 2183, 2266." — Lectotypus, Berlandier 846 = 2266, GH! isotypus, NY! paratypi, as given by Gray, GH!. Parosela thyrsiflora (Gray) Vail, Bull. Torrey Club 24: 14. 1897. — Dalea emphysodes subsp. thyrsiflora (Gray) R. T. Clausen, Bull. Torrey Club 73: 85. 1946. D. carthagenensis subsp. thyrsiflora (Gray) R. T. Clausen, Bull. Torrey Club 73: 572. 1946.

Around the Gulf from Corpus Christi, Texas, into Veracruz the calyx-tube of var. pauciflora is commonly glabrous, but not consistently so; in Yucatan and Cuba it is thinly pilose. In Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon the spikes are often curved over at tip, appearing wilted, but apparently not so elsewhere. On the Gulf Coast Plain in northeastern Mexico the species is extremely common and locally abundant, especially in wasteland around villages, in disturbed savanna, and second-growth brush, forming in places an almost continuous undergrowth. The variety was first collected by Houston at Veracruz in 1730 and again about 50 years later somewhere in Mexico by Sesse & Mocino (Herb. S. & M. 2672, F).