stem short, erect, simple, imbricated with leaves throughout; leaves connate, 4-ranked, closely imbricating, orbicular, fleshy, very obtuse, with inflexed, ciliate margins; cymes capitate, terminal, sessile, densely many flowered; calyx-lobes linear, obtuse, ciliate; petals connate below, tapering above into long, lanceolate, channelled points, much longer than the calyx; stigma subsessile; squamæ cuneate, stipitate, orange. 2–4 inches high, closely covered with leaves and crowned with a globose fascicle of flowers, the whole plant resembling one of the Balanophoreæ. Leaves nearly an inch broad, not quite so long, more or less inrolled. Flowers white.
