Stems perennial, diffuse procumbent, terete, 3-6 inches long, 1 1/2 line thick, dull purple-red, papillate, rather rough, clothed with fine short spreading hairs, at length becoming woody, pale-grey and glabrous. Leaves crowded on the barren shoots, 1/2-1 1/2 inch distant on the flowering branches, connate at base, sub-erect-recurving or sometimes the older leaves spreading-recurved, 1 1/2 inches long, 2-3 lines wide, linear, attenuate from about 1/3 or 1/4 below apex to a subacute point, face concave, back obtusely keeled, both surfaces covered with minute glistening papillae, hairy along the keel and margins otherwise glabrous, dark green, dull purple-red at base; sometimes the whole leaf is purple-tinted. Flowers terminal, usually solitary, sometimes 2-3 together. Peduncle 1-2 1/4 inches long, terete, clothed and coloured like the stem. Calyx 5-cleft, tube obconical, lobes leafy unequal, two being about twice as long as the rest, shorter lobes membrane-margined 3-6 lines long, longer lobes 6-11 lines long, semiterete subacute; the whole minutely papillate, clothed outside with fine short hairs, lobes dark green, tube paler. Corolla 1 1/2 inch diameter, petals straight, not very numerous, about 3 seriate, bright purple on both sides, linear, apex obtuse, entire or minutely denticulate. Stamens about 1/4 as long as petals, filaments pale yellow, anthers bright yellow. Stigmas 5, slightly shorter than stamens, turgid-cylindric acuminate, apex shortly aristate.
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