Herbaceous to suffruticose. Stem branching, decumbent, rooting at the nodes, 15-40 cm. high-or rarely to 2 m., the younger parts usually ferruginous-puberulent. Leaves straight or nearly so, strongly asymmetric, ovate or elliptic, acute or acu-minate, base acute on the adaxial side, obtuse and decurrent on the other, 3-8 cm. long, penninerved, doubly serrate, ciliate, sparsely hirtellous to glabrous above, densely pubescent on the nerves to wholly glabrous beneath, petiole 2-15 mm. long, stipules deciduous, ovate, obtuse, setose, 2-6 (rarely to 12) mm. long. Peduncles axillary, erect, 12-45 mm. long, 1-to few-flowered. Bracts deciduous, elliptic, setaceous-dentate at apex. Pedicels 6-18 mm. long. Staminate tepals 4, subequal, 3-8 mm. long, the outer elliptic, entire, red, often pilose, the inner obovate, white. Stamens on a slender column 2 mm. high, filaments short, anthers linear, the con-
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nective slightly produced. Pistillate bracteoles deciduous, elliptic. Pistillate tepals 5, subequal, elliptic, 3-5 mm. long, entire, red or white, the outer often pilose. Styles 3 with many short branches wholly covered by stigmatic papillae, placentae bilamellate, ovuliferous on all sides. Capsule very variable, broadly turbinate, obtuse at base, with 3 ascending horns on the angles, the tips of the horns often deciduous, the apical column well developed, angled or terete, slender, conical or cylindrical or subclavate, from longer than the horns to rarely shorter.
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