stem tall, erect, much branched, terete, softly hairy and villous; leaves opposite and alternate, villous, lanceolate or oblongo-lanceolate, sessile or half-clasping, unequally and rather sharply serrulate; stigma deeply 4- lobed, its lobes strongly revolute. Stem 3–5 feet high, robust, pyramidal, with many lateral branches. Pubescence copious, soft, and somewhat hoary, but variable in amount and in the length of the hairs. Leaves mostly lanceolate; the lower ones opposite, broader, and more oblong. Flowers bright purple. I cannot separate this from the European E. hirsutum; Cape specimens differ as much among themselves, in hairiness, shape, and size of leaves and size of flower, as any of them do from the European plant. Seringe (DC. l. c.) chiefly relies in distinguishing E. villosum from E. hirsutum, on the stigma, which he states to be “somewhat thicker and more convolute” in E. villosum.
