Calyx campanulate, somewhat 2-lipped; upper lip of 2 short teeth, the lower of 3 longer ones. Standard roundish, large, turned back, with 2 callosities at its base; keel scythe-shaped; wings doubly auricled at the base. Stamens diadelphous. Pods elongated, thickish, knobby, stipitate, many-seeded, at length 2-valved. Seeds large.--Woody twiners, climbing high, with minute stipules, pinnate leaves of 9--13 ovate-lanceolate leaflets, with or without minute stipels, and dense racemes of large and showy lilac-purple flowers. (Dedicated to the late _Professor Wistar_, of Philadelphia.) 1. W. frutéscens, Poir. Downy or smoothish when old; wings of the corolla with one short auricle and an awl-shaped one as long as the claw.--Alluvial grounds, Va. to Fla., west to S. Ind., Kan. and La. May.--Sometimes cultivated for ornament, as is the still handsomer Chinese species. 21. ASTRÁGALUS, Tourn. MILK-VETCH. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla usually long and narrow; standard narrow, equalling or exceeding the wings and blunt keel, its sides reflexed or spreading. Stamens diadelphous. Pod several--many-seeded, various, mostly turgid, one or both sutures usually projecting into the cell, either slightly or so as to divide the cavity lengthwise into two.--Chiefly herbs (ours perennials), with odd-pinnate leaves and spiked or racemed flowers. Mature pods are usually necessary for certain identification of the species. (The ancient Greek name of a leguminous plant, as also of the ankle-bone; but the connection between the two is past all guess.) I. _Pod turgid, completely or imperfectly 2-celled by the intrusion of the dorsal suture, the ventral suture being not at all or less deeply inflexed._--ASTRAGALUS proper. [*] _Pod plum-shaped, succulent, becoming thick and fleshy, indehiscent, not stipitute, completely 2-celled._ 1. A. caryocárpus, Ker. (GROUND PLUM.) Pale and minutely appressed-pubescent; leaflets narrowly oblong; flowers in a short spike-like raceme; _corolla violet-purple; fruit glabrous, ovate-globular, more or less pointed_, about {2/3}´ in diameter, _very thick-walled_, cellular or corky when dry.--Sask. and Minn. to Mo., Col., and Tex. May. 2. A. Mexicànus, A. DC. Smoother, or pubescent with looser hairs, larger; leaflets roundish, obovate, or oblong; flowers larger (10--12´´ long); calyx softly hairy; _corolla cream-color, bluish only at the tip; fruit globular, very obtuse_ and pointless, 1´ or more in diameter; otherwise like the last.--Prairies and open plains, Ill. to Kan., south to Tex. The unripe fruits of both resemble green plums--whence the popular name--and are eaten, raw or cooked, by travellers.