a shrub up to 10 ft. high; leaves 5–9 in. long, 2–3 1/2 in. broad at the widest part, obovate-oblong, obtuse, bluntly-mucronate, prominently veined, glaucous, glabrous; head sessile, 2 in. long, about 3 in. in diam.; receptacle 9 lin. high, hemispherical; paleæ ovate, subacute; involucral bracts 10–12-seriate; outer elliptic-ovate, obtuse, glabrous, ciliolate; inner spathulate-oblong or spathulate-linear, glabrous or minutely pubescent on the back; perianth-sheath 10 lin. long, dilated, 3-keeled and usually 9- (sometimes 7-)nerved below, whitish-pubescent above, glabrous below excepting on the ciliate margins; lip 3 lin. long, 3-toothed, sides pubescent, back glabrescent, top villous, the villi concealing the subequal teeth, which are 1/2 lin. long; stamens all fertile; anthers subsessile, 2 lin. long; apical glands 1/3 lin. long, ovate, subobtuse; ovary 5 lin. long, linear-oblong, covered with long golden-yellow hairs; style 9 lin. long, falcate, flattened and up to 3/4 lin. broad below, much attenuated above, glabrous; stigma 1 1/2 lin. long, subulate, grooved, obtuse, almost imperceptibly passing into the style. null