stems 3–4 in. high, obtusely 4-angled, 1/2– 2/3 in. square, rather softly fleshy, glabrous, greyish- or subglaucous-green; teeth ending in spreading subulate acute leaves 2–4 lin. long; flowers 1–4 together, successively developed, near the base of the young stems; pedicels erect or spreading, 1 1/4–2 in. long, about 2 lin. thick, becoming 4–5 lin. thick in fruit, glabrous; sepals 2 1/2–3 lin. long, ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, glabrous; corolla in bud rhomboid-ovoid in side view, pentagonal, with 5 short acute spreading or decurved points at the angles, when expanded 2 1/2–3 1/2 in. in diam., flattish on the disk, with spreading or recurving lobes, glabrous on both sides, smooth and thickly covered with brownish-red spots (always?) on a pale green ground on the back, inner face densely and minutely rugose, intense violet- or blackish-purple, minutely and indistinctly mottled with a slightly lighter shade of the same colour and lighter along the margins, with or without a few yellow spots at the base of the lobes and on the disk; lobes 1–1 1/4 in. long, 9–10 lin. broad, ovate or oblong-ovate, acute, flat or slightly convex, beautifully ciliate from base to apex with vibratile slightly clavate white or pale purple hairs; outer corona-lobes erectly spreading, 3 1/2–4 lin. long, deeply trifid, blackish-purple, with the tips of the teeth and margins of the middle tooth below the middle ochreous; middle tooth lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, varying from entire and acute, obtuse or truncate to bifid at the apex, channelled down the face and the sides, pinched in at the base; lateral teeth shorter, subulate or filiform; inner corona-lobes 2-horned, blackish-purple, with the tips of the inner horn and a few dots at the base of both horns yellow; outer horn ascending, 3/4–1 lin. long, compressed, linear- or narrowly deltoid-subulate; inner horns connivent-erect at the base, recurving above, 2–2 3/4 lin. long, filiform, acute or obtuse; odour “horribly fetid” (MacOwan), “musky, very agreeable” (Pillans); follicles erect, subparallel, 4–5 in. long, 1/2– 2/3 in. thick, fusiform, beaked, glabrous, pale greenish, with numerous irregular blackish-green longitudinal linear markings; seeds 1/4 in. long, 1/8 in. broad, elongate-ovate, flat, with a wing-like margin, smooth, light-brown. null
