Occurring both as an annual and with a woody, branching, no doubt perennial stock; erect or ascending, forking or a good deal branched below, from 1/2 to 2 ft., minutely pilose towards the extremities in the tropical specimens. Leaves linear, tapering to a fine point, or in the depressed perennial form oblong or narrowly elliptical, apiculate, pilulose or glabrate, very shortly petiolate, 1/2–1 1/2 in. long, 1–3 lines broad. Flowers secund, in terminal, sometimes elongate racemes; pedicels spreading, about equal to the free outer sepals. Bracts early deciduous. Wing-sepals ovate, narrowed at the base, sometimes so much so as to appear obovate, with 3 nerves connected towards the apex. Lateral corolla-lobes shorter than the median, orbicular, shortly narrowed below or unguiculate. Capsule obovate, emarginate, narrowly winged in front, glabrous or nearly so.
