Deser.—A small shrub, flowering before leafing ; branches 
and branchlets very slender, glabrous. Leaves distichous, 
one and a half to three and a half inches long, often 
as broad as long, orbicular-cordate, acute or acuminate, 
bright green above, margined with red-brown, glabrous 
above, except in the margins, and in the silkily hairy 
centre of the interspaces between the sunk nerves, of 
which there are seven to nine pairs; beneath pale, with 
raised, pubescent nerves ; petiole very slender, one half to 
one inch long. Stipules half an inch long, oblong-lanceo- 
late, acuminate, membranous, concave, white, hairy within, 
eaducous. Flowers bracteate and bibracteolate, about two- 
thirds of an inch in diameter, disposed in small distant 
two- or three-flowered short, sessile racemes, which are 
scattered along very slender, flexuous, leafless branches. 
Bracts crowded, one-fourth to one-third of an inch long, 
orbicular or oblong, concave, very pale green, membranous, 
hairy within. Calyz-lobes very small, rounded. Petals 
orbicular-obovate, primrose-yellow.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, portion of leaf; 2, calyx, stamens, and base of bract ; 3, calyx with 
two lobes removed, showing the disk-glands and ovaries; 4 and 5, anthers :— 
all enlarged. 
