stem annual, many times dichotomous, fastigiate, scabrous or glabrous; leaves connate, linear-lanceolate or linear, obtuse, glabrous or scaberulous; flowers minute, solitary in the forks of the stem, with dense sub-capitate fascicles of flowers ending the branches; calyx-lobes equalling or exceeding the corolla, oblong or ovate-oblong, fleshy, mostly blunt, often scabrous-pointed; petals connate at base, oblong or ovate, subacute; styles shortly filiform; squamæ linear. A much branched annual, 2–4 inches high, every branch ending in a tuft of small flowers. Leaves 3–4 lines long, 1–2 lines wide, sometimes ovato-lanceolate. Our var. β. merely differs in the calyx-lobes; it is scarcely worth separating.
Distribution
SOUTH AFRICA Sandy ground round Capetown and in the Western Districts, common. (Herb. Hk., Sd., D.)
