an erect shrub, 4–8 ft. high; branches tetragonal, furrowed, armed with few or many irregular, recurved prickles, hispid at the nodes, with a few scattered stiff hairs on the internodes; leaves opposite, petiolate, ovate, cordate or subcordate at the base, obtuse or subacute, with crenate-serrate margins, slightly rugose, scabrid-pubescent above and on the veins beneath, punctate-glandular, with 4–6 ascending primary nerves on each side slightly impressed above, prominent beneath; petiole 1/4– 3/4 in. long; blade 1 3/4–2 1/2 in. long, 1–1 1/2 in. broad; spike pedunculate, axillary, solitary, subglobose, 1/2–1 in. in diam.; peduncle subtetragonal, scabrid-pubescent, 1–2 1/2 in. long; bracts herbaceous, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 3-nerved, puberulous or pubescent, 2 1/2–4 lin. long, 3/4 lin. broad; outer flowers red, inner yellowish-white; calyx tubular, loosely investing the base of the corolla-tube, obscurely 2-lobed, minutely 4-toothed, distinctly 4-nerved, glabrous within, pubescent without and on the margin, 3/4–1 lin. long; corolla-tube straight, dilated above the middle, pubescent without, glabrous within, 1/6– 1/2 in. long; posterior lip more or less emarginate; anterior sinuate, obscurely crenate; drupe about the size of a small pea, black, shining, glabrous. null
