small shrub with a simple stem 4–6 in. long; branches numerous, gracefully curved, glabrous; leaves 6–10 lin. long, 1/4– 1/3 lin. broad, linear, acicular, pungent, with a shallow groove along each side of the midrib, glabrous; head sessile, 1 1/2 in. long, about 1 1/2 in. in diam., pendulous; involucral bracts 8-seriate, glabrous, bright rose to crimson; outer ovate to ovate-oblong, more or less obtuse, ciliate; inner oblong, obtuse, but often apparently acuminate owing to the involute upper margin, exceeding the flowers; perianth-sheath 5 lin. long, almost hyaline above, dilated, 3-keeled and 5-nerved below, glabrous, ciliate; lip 1 1/2 lin. long, 3-toothed, oblong, rufously setulose above, ciliate; teeth subequal, 1 lin. long; stamens all fertile; filaments 1/4 lin. long, flattened; anthers linear, 1 lin. long; apical glands 1/6 lin. long, ovate, acute, keeled on the inner face; ovary covered with long light brown hairs; style 7 lin. long, narrowed from the base upwards, curved inwards or at length almost erect, flattened below, glabrous; stigma 1 lin. long, cylindric, obtuse, hardly swollen at the junction with the style. null
