shrub, 6–12 ft. high; twigs slender, covered with rust-coloured scales when young; leaves fragrant, subverticillate, distinctly petioled, firmly papery, penninerved, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse and slightly emarginate, base rounded or wide-cuneate, margin entire, 1/2–2 in. long, 1/4– 3/4 in. wide, dark green, quite glabrous above, densely clothed beneath with silvery scales and rusty scales intermixed; lateral nerves 9–12 on each side, slightly raised above, not visible beneath; petiole up to 1 in. long, scaly like undersurface of leaf which is without glands at its attachment to the petiole; stipules minute, subulate; racemes androgynous, much abbreviated, forming small dense corymbs, 1/3 in. across, at the tips of the shoots; male pedicels about 1/6 in. long when flower opens; sepals ovate, 1 lin. long, coriaceous, densely scaly externally, the margins puberulous within; petals oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, with villous margins, otherwise glabrous on both surfaces; disc-glands minute; stamens 15–18; filaments explanate and sparingly hairy below; receptacle pubescent; female sepals as in male; petals rather narrower and shorter than in male; disc thin, glabrous; ovary densely clothed with large, orbicular scales; styles 2-partite almost to the base, the arms subterete, glabrous; capsule 3-lobed, 1/3 in. long, densely scaly; seeds ellipsoid, brown. null
