a shrub, 1–2 ft. high with a tuberous base rising about 1/2 ft. above the ground, as thick as a man's arm, brownish, producing several more or less branched stems; branches finally greyish-tomentellous when young, later on covered with a thin smooth brownish bark; leaves scattered on long shoots and in sessile fascicles (short shoots), the latter from the axils of the former, all linear or oblong-linear, obtuse or (rarely) acute, with recurved margins, 1 1/2 in. long, 2–3 lin. broad, subcoriaceous, green and pubescent above, pale and tomentose below; stipules 3 (1 intrapetiolar), spiny, the lateral 2 of the long shoots spreading, 1/2–1 in. long, the intrapetiolar shorter and erect, all three rising from a conspicuous decurrent leaf-cushion, those of the short shoots shorter, rapidly decreasing towards the base of the shoots; cymes terminal, sessile, contracted, few-flowered, finely tomentose; bracts subulate or lanceolate, small, early deciduous; pedicels 4–6 lin. long; calyx 3 lin. long, finely tomentellous; sepals narrow-lanceolate, acuminate; corolla-tube cylindric, pubescent without, purple, slender, infra-staminal part 2–3 lin. long, with 5 hairy ridges below the stamens, supra-staminal very slightly wider, 4–6 lin. long; limb to more than 1 in. across; lobes white and purple (the outer half), oblong, contracted into a distinct claw at the base, 6–10 lin. long, obtuse; anthers 2–2 1/2 lin. long; disc 5-partite, shorter than the ovary; follicles spindle-shaped, long acuminate, over 2 in. long. null
