Dnscr. A low densely pubescent herb, clothed with 
spreading soft hairs. ootstock short, woody, with a 
fusiform woody root. Branches numerous from the crown 
of the rootstock, three to eight inches long, decumbent at 
the base, then prostrate or suberect, leafy, simple or 
dichotomously branched. Leaves pubescent on both sur- 
faces, radical long-petioled, one to one and a half inches 
long, spathulate or oblanceolate; cauline one-third to two- 
thirds of an inch long, obovate or spathulate, obtuse or 
rounded at the apex, narrowed into a short petiole, nerves 
very obscure. Cymes terminal, usually sessile between the 
uppermost pair of leaves, rarely peduncled and evolute, 
becoming panicled or corymbose; pedicels usually very 
short, longer in the evolute cymes. Flowers erect, one-third 
to nearly two-thirds of an inch in diameter. Calyx cam- 
panulate, five-cleft to the middle; lobes oblong ovate, 
subacute, ciliate. Petals twice as long as the calyx, obovate- 
spathulate, white or lilac with three pink veins. Stamens 
shorter than the calyx; anthers small. Styles two in our 
specimens (three are figured by Klotzsch). Capsule oblong, 
rather longer than the calyx. Seeds broad, flat, black.— 
J. DH, 
Fig. 1, Calyx and stamens ; 2, and 3, stamens; 4, pistil:—all enlarged. 
