stems 4–6 in. high, 5–8 lin. square, with compressed somewhat repand-dentate angles, opaque green, glabrous to the eye and touch, but very minutely puberulous on the angles viewed through a lens; rudimentary leaves erect, 1 lin. long, ovate, acute, minutely puberulous; flowers 4–9 together near the base of the young stems, successively developed; pedicels 3/4–1 in. long, velvety-puberulous; sepals 3 lin. long, lanceolate, acuminate, velvety-puberulous, usually ciliate with much longer hairs; corolla in bud globose, very obtusely pointed, when expanded and the lobes extended 2 1/2–3 in. in diam., minutely puberulous on the nerves of the glabrous light green back; inner face with a few slightly raised transverse ridges on the apical half of the lobes, entirely dull smoky-purple and darker at the tips of the lobes, or with some of the ridges greenish or dirty-yellowish; disk flattish and with the base of the lobes covered with long soft simple somewhat adpressed dark purple hairs; lobes 1–1 1/6 in. long, 7–8 lin. broad, ovate-lanceolate, acute, strongly recurved, not revolute at the margins, ciliate with long simple purple hairs, partly directed inwards; outer corona-lobes about 2 1/2 lin. long, ascending-spreading with recurved tips, oblong-linear, obtuse and mucronate or acuminate, concave down the face, purplish-black or dark purple-brown; inner corona-lobes purplish-black or dark purple-brown, divided into a free ascending-spreading deltoid or linear or somewhat attenuate acute dorsal-wing 1–2 lin. long and a subulate-filiform inner horn 3–4 lin. long, connivent at the base, then recurving, often over and beyond the tips of the dorsal wings. null
