Descr. A suffruticose plant, with terete or very obtusely 
four-sided stems, downy, as well as the foliage, the dranches her- 
baceous, erect. Leaves opposite, ovate, or rarely the lower ones 
subcordato-ovate, sharply acuminated, entire, penninerved ; the 
largest of them are two inches long, they gradually become 
smaller and pass insensibly into dracteas as they approach the 
owers. Panicle terminal, formed of lax racemes, each bearing two 
to four drooping large (for the genus) almost entirely bright red, 
or rather scarlet, fowers. Calyx tubular, very gibbous at the 
base above, broader towards the mouth, which is oblique and six- 
toothed, strongly ribbed. Corolla of six petals, four extremely small, 
lanceolate, erect, scarcely longer than the calyces ; two upper ones 
very large, unguiculate, the limb obovato-rotundate, reflexed. 
Stamens eleven, inserted into the lower side of the faux of the 
calyz, in three rows or series ; filaments exserted, hairy. Anthers 
small.. Ovary seated upon an oblique gland, oblong, tapering 
into a subulate style. 
Fig. 1. Flower, the two larger upper petals removed. 2. The same, laid 
open. 3. Pistil :—magnified. 
