Calyx small; segments lanceolate or linear, 2 anticous connate 1/4 their length or (in most African species) nearly to the tip. Corolla small (or in P. coccineum 1 in. long); tube straight or curved, dilated in the upper half or only funnel-shaped at the very top; segments 5, contorted in bud, nearly equal (or in P. variabile unequal), two-lipped or not. Stamens 4, subsimilar; filaments nearly glabrous except at the base; anther-cells parallel, subequal, base short-tailed apiculate or muticous; pollen ellipsoid, longitudinally few ribbed, stopples 3, with (nearly always) 1 tubercle above and below each stopple. Style thinly hairy; stigmatic arms linear-oblong, subequal or unequal, rarely one obsolete. Ovary with 2 ovules in each cell, glabrous. Capsule small, commonly 1/4 in. long, sessile, ovate or ellipsoid, compressed, hard, brown, shining, woody throughout, placentæ with seeds rising elastically from the base of the capsule. Seeds 4 or more often 2, with numerous hygroscopic hairs. —Small, shrubby. Leaves entire. Pedicels to flowers very short; inflorescence of contracted monopodial cymes, often reduced to single flowers, of which many branches are often sterile and carrying linear (often long ciliate) bracts. Bract small, narrow, or 0; bracteoles large, ovate or elliptic, concave, enclosing calyx, ultimately more or less scarious and reticulately veined.